Famous Last Words
by beautifulwordshenanigans
Summary: I, Rose Weasley, would like to make something very clear, people. I. Will. Never. Fall. For. Scorpius. Malfoy. Yeah,I know what you're thinking,famous last words.I just have to say...that you'll see.
1. Head Boy, Head Girl

**A/N: ****Hello all, welcome to my story. This is my first HP fic on this site so I'm not really sure what you readers like, but this is a story that actually is completed in its entirety on harrypotterfanfiction,com, but this is a slightly improved version as I'm heading each chapter before I post 'em her. But by all means, if you really like the story and want to read it there, more power to ya! However, updates on here will be regular and I'd love your feedback. I think I've yammered enough, read on, my friends, read on.**

Head Boy, Head Girl

"Aaah, it's so great to be back," I thought happily, gazing around at the organized chaos that was ensuing on Platform 9 ¾.

My name is Rose Weasley. Yes, the daughter of the _famous _Ron and Hermione Weasley, best friends of the _even more_ famous Harry Potter. Believe me, I know. It's not all a picnic either, contrary to common opinion.

First off, my father practically ordered me to be in Gryffindor like the 20 billion Weasley before me. Apparently, he's forgotten that the _Sorting Hat_ does the sorting, not me. As a 7th year Ravenclaw, I'm not complaining.

Secondly, Harry Potter's my uncle. I don't really need to say more, do I? I mean, when you're the niece of the man who killed Lord Voldemort you're guaranteed a certain bit of fame. Of course, it's nothing compared to what James, Al, and Lily had to endure up 'til James' fifth year. Guess there's only so long you can gawk at somebody because of their father. Though apparently there's some Creevey that still follows Al around. Creepy.

Oh and not only am I a Ravenclaw, but I'm also Head Girl. My mom was so proud, Uncle Harry wasn't surprised, and Uncle George completely gave up hope on me. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

"Rose! Rose!" my younger cousin, Lily, ran up to me completely out of breath. Lily's starting her fifth year and has become quite the character. Her, my brother Hugo, and her brothers, especially James before he graduated, never let the Slytherins have a moment's peace. Listen to the little devil: "Rose, what would be the best way to make a cauldron full of the Draught of Living Death explode?"

See what I mean?

I raised an eyebrow at my cousin, "You realize that you are asking the new Head Girl this, don't you?"

Lily was completely unconcerned. "You wouldn't tell on us," she said confidently, looking at me with wide innocent eyes. I swore under my breath because it was true. When it came to my cousins I was weak. Sometimes I wished I had the nerve to do the things they get up to, but I'll just have to settle for a sharp intellect, quick wit, and a scathing tongue. Words before actions.

"Fine," I grumbled. "Add lacewing flies and a unicorn hair, stir clockwise, wait thirty seconds and boom, one exploding cauldron, one Slytherin covered in the Draught of Living Death and out cold for hours with the slight side effect of leaks coming out of his ears, and one Lily Potter in detention." I glared at her and she grinned. "Thanks Rose." And my diabolical cousin skipped off to her friends and to tell Al and Hugo what she learned.

You see, another downside to having Hermione Weasley as a mother is that I inherited her brains. Don't get me wrong, I _like_ being smart. I pretty much know everything about every subject at Hogwarts. Only bad thing is, my cousins and my brother know that fact too. Like dear Lily just did, they frequently use it against me. Little gits.

I glanced at my watch. Not a weird one with planets on it, no, a nice _digital_ one. Yikes, I only had about 5 minutes to get on the train. I wanted to see my friends before I had to go to the prefect's compartment with the Head Boy and give a little speech.

_That fun will have to wait until after I find Katie and Amy_, I thought as I hurried down the train looking for my friends. I was so intent on this that I didn't notice the compartment door right in front of me open and I ran straight into…Scorpius Malfoy. Bloody fantastic.

Well, the Bane of My Existence smirked at me, but I just brushed past him, not wanting to get into it with Malfoy right now.

"Looking lovely today, Weasley," he called after me as I stalked away.

Without sparing him a glance, I said over my shoulder, "Wish I could say the same thing about you, Malfoy." Admittedly, not my best comeback, but it would have to do. We would no doubt exchange heated words later, and I would make up for it.

Scorpius Malfoy, aka the Bane of My Existence, is also a Seventh year Ravenclaw. I know, huge surprise there. If _my_ father freaked out when he found out I was in Ravenclaw, just imagine the look on _Scorpius'_ father's face. Draco Malfoy: my mother, father, and Uncle Harry's biggest rival when they were at Hogwarts. Oh the stories I used to hear. Is he really still known as 'Malfoy the amazing bouncing ferret'? Wish I knew. Maybe someone will come along and pass the title on to his son… One can only hope.

But back to Malfoy's daddy. He used to be a supporter of Voldemort, along with his parents. But since the Battle of Hogwarts, he's apparently tried to turn over a new leaf. According to my dad, and I quote, "he's still a slimy git" (insert an indignant "Ronald!" from my mum here), but Dad is never going to like Malfoy Senior. You know what they were like when they were at school together. They weren't exactly pals, were they?

Anyway, Mr. Malfoy has been completely disassociating himself and his family with the Dark Arts. He's even stopped speaking to his father, Lucius (His mum respected his decision, but not good ole' dad). I guess that's how Malfoy Junior got into Ravenclaw and not Slytherin. A Malfoy not in Slytherin? How does the sun still shine?

Just my luck that the first Malfoy not in Slytherin is in my house, right? From the day we were sorted, Scorpius Malfoy and I have not gotten along. Maybe because he's almost as smart as me, which I'll admit, really irks me. Besides being arrogant and annoying, he just _had _to be brilliant as well.

My first five years at Hogwarts, Malfoy detested me and I detested him. Same old, same old. But then, just last year, something changed. Malfoy seemed to really look at me for the first time. He started complimenting me. And not backhanded compliments either. Real compliments, like what he said when we ran into each other, (literally) "Looking lovely today, Weasley." Mind you, he said them arrogantly and in an offhand way, but still. When does a Malfoy _ever_ compliment someone? Except of course when they're trying to suck up.

My pesky, annoying friends keep saying that it's because he likes me. I laugh them off every time. Scorpius Malfoy interested in a Weasley? I don't think so. Not gonna happen. Anyway I'm used to it now, even if I don't understand it. You heard my snappy comeback.

Ah, here are my pesky and annoying friends now. I had reached the end of the train and in the last compartment sat my two best friends, Katie Davies and Amy Corner. I slid open the door and plopped down next to Katie.

"So girls, how was your summers?" I asked, looking at my friends.

Katie answered first, an excited gleam in her eyes "Great. I got in some great Quidditch, might even have some new strategies for this year up my are so gonna get that cup." Katie is the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and a damn good chaser. She could play for England when she graduates. She's also completely mad. There is no weather we don't fly in (I'm a chaser too), no time is too early or late for us to be on our brooms practicing and there's no strategy that we don't try. And I'm telling you, some are bloody _insane_. Don't get me wrong, Katie's brilliant, best captain we've ever had, but Merlin's beard sometimes I seriously question her sanity. I believe she rivals the first Quidditch Captain Uncle Harry had, Oliver Wood. And from what I hear, _that_ is saying something.

Brown haired and blue eyed, Katie's got a serious manner. Compared to Amy and I, she's got her feet firmly on the ground, and sometimes need a tad bit of help lightening up. Like that time with the hamster… Ah, yeah, no wonder the Honeyduke's owner watches us suspiciously with the Fizzing Whizbees.

Now Amy replied, "I got a new line of perfume up in my mum's store and now I'm working on a pair of jeans that change style according to your mood. For example, skinny jeans when you're feeling sexy and boot cut when you're laid back." She smiled at us excitedly and I shook my head. There you have it, folks, mood jeans, from the one and only Amy Corner. Amy is light hearted with dark black hair and green eyes and one of the most creative people I know.

If Katie's the Quidditch star and I'm the smart one, then Amy is definitely the fashion diva. From anything to making our uniforms cuter to what to wear on a date, Amy's your girl.

Gossiping with my friends lightened my mood even more, and after listening to a highly entertaining story involving Amy's failed attempt to dye her hair platinum blonde, I was grinning slightly ridiculously as I asked "Do you to know who the new Head Boy is?"

Instantly, two evil grins appeared on their faces, and I felt a sense of foreboding. It is _never_ a good thing your best friends grin evilly at you. It means that they know something that you don't, and like it, but know that you won't. Yep, the complexity of the evil grin.

"Oh, we know who it is alright," Katie said solemnly. "In fact, you'd better get down to the prefect's compartment to meet him soon or else you'll be late."

I leapt up, looking worriedly at Katie and Amy, who were now barely holding back giggles. I had almost made it out the door when Amy called, "The Heads share a separate common room, Rose,k _and_ have their own dorms there. Very intimate. You should probably remember that."

I slammed the door to shut out their insane laughter and practically ran down the train to the prefect's compartment. A door opened right in front of me and I ran straight into Scorpius Malfoy. Again. How's that for a little déjà vu? He grabbed my arm to steady me, but I yanked it away.

He smirked at me. Have I mentioned how much I hate it when he smirks?

"Get out of my way, Malfoy. As I'm heading to the prefect's compartment, as new Head Girl, you'd best move." I said loftily, not really caring how snobby I sounded.

Malfoy didn't look at all surprised at this. "Well then, I'll just accompany you. Seeing as I'm the new Head Boy."

Him, Scorpius Malfoy. Head Boy. Me, Rose Weasley. Head Girl. Shared common room, with dorms.

Someone kill me now.

**A/n: It's short, I'm aware. And a tad cliché, but stick with me and you might be pleasantly surprised. Reviews are love :D**


	2. Malfoy? Attractive?

**A/N: And here is chapter 2. Many thanks to any and all who read chapter 1. I know this is not my best work as I wrote it a year ago when I had just started fanfiction, but I swear to you, it improves. Oh, and the chapters get longer as well. These are a bit short. Anywho, enjoy!**

Recap:  
_Him, Scorpius Malfoy, Head Boy. Me, Rose Weasley, Head Girl. Shared common room with dorms.___

_Someone kill me now_.

I'm serious. Someone get out their wand right now and do me in. How the _bloody hell_ am I supposed to survive sharing the same common room and having a dorm freakin' next door to Malfoy?

It's official. Someone is out to get me and it's not my brother Hugo or James, Al, and Lily Potter. At least not this time.

Katie and Amy will say that I'm over reacting. OK fine, I admit I kinda freaked out. I was seeing red and kept slamming into things. Which earned me a few strange looks, mostly because I was yelling at said inanimate objects. I probably have a bump the size of a bludger on my forehead by now.

I made my little speech with Malfoy still in complete shock. I think the prefects were too. They didn't say a single word. They were still trying to process the fact that Scorpius Malfoy was Head Boy. So was I, folks, so was I.

Alright, I know what you're all thinking. This all sounds familiar doesn't it? Malfoy might just have a crush on me (and I stress the word _might_), but I hate his guts. Then suddenly, we're the new Heads. It all sorta screams James Potter and Lily Evans doesn't it? I've been told the story too and let me make this very clear people. I. Will. Never. Fall. For. Scorpius. Malfoy. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're all thinking now too: famous last words. Well, I just have to say that you'll see.

I just sealed my own fate didn't I?

Speech over with, I contemplated my situation. Beside the whole common room dorm thing, as Heads , Malfoy and I would be in charge of scheduling Hogsmeade trips and any other events or activities that are for the students pleasure. Words straight out of my letter.

When I first found out that I was Head Girl, I was full of ideas and enthusiasm. Not so anymore. The prospect of spending even more time with Malfoy than I already have to pretty much eliminated any thought of fun that I might have had planning things, funny enough. I wanted to scream. Whose bloody brilliant idea was it to make Malfoy Head with me? Come on!

Speak of the devil, "Going so soon, Weasley?" drawled Malfoy from where he was sprawled on the seats. I had been hoping to escape without having to talk to him, but today hasn't really been my day has it? So I took a deep breath, resisting the urge to throw something and turned around to reply. And my breath left me in a _whoosh_. This was the first good look I had gotten at Malfoy since before the summer. And Merlin's beard when had he gotten so attractive? He had the body of a long term Quidditch player, his features were still sharp, but in a handsome short of way, and his blonde hair had gotten long and fell into his eyes.

Cool, grey eyes that were staring at me curiously. I blushed. "I did not just think all that about Malfoy," I though, horrified. Still revolted with myself I replied stiffly, "I am. You _may_ find it surprising, but I do not relish your company."

I felt a swooping sensation in my stomach as he sat up and brushed that blonde hair out of his face. _Stop acting like such a girl Rose,_ I silently berated myself.

"That's a shame, Weasley. We 're going to see a lot of each other this year." He smirked and I glared.

"Yes we are." I snarled, and then strode out the door, slamming it behind me. I quickly ran down the train, thankfully not _into_ anyone this time and entered my friends compartment. Katie and Amy, who were playing Exploding Snap, took one look at me and burst out laughing. Gits.

I stared sulkily out the window as Amy said, "Oh come on, Rose. It won't be that bad. Anyway, he's totally hot this year." I couldn't help it; the comment caught me off guard. I half nodded in agreement before I realized what I was doing. I froze and then tried to turn it into a hacking cough. I know, pathetic. But it was too late the saga of the knowing looks had begun. Starting with the one Katie gave me now. "Mmmm, not bad at all, ay Rose?"

"If you value your life at all, Kayie, I would stop talking now." I growled. My best friends laughed, but dropped the subject. It was final; I was going to talk Headmistress McGonagall the first chance I got to find out exactly _why _she was making my life miserable. With that thought in mind, I reluctantly joined Katie and Amy in Exploding Snap and soon forgot all about Malfoy.

The Hogwarts Express screeched to a halt several hours later and after a ride in the carriages, Amy, Katie, and I were seated at the Ravenclaw Table awaiting, for the last time, the Welcome feast and McGonagall's start of term speech. I kept glancing at the Gryffindor table where Al, Hugo, and Lily sat all looking highly mischievous in my opinion.

I sighed, something was going to happen. Blimey, couldn't they take _one_ bloody day off? Apparently not. At that moment, the feast appeared, and all the dishes at the Slytherin table began…well…having a food fight. With the Slytherins. Except that the Slytherins didn't have any food so it was kinda a one way thing, if you know what I mean. And since the house elves keep replenishing the dishes when they ran out of food… You can imagine the effect.

I shook my head, thoroughly unsurprised. I looked up at the staff table; Professor McGonagall spoke urgently to Flitwick (he's quite old now) who immobilized the flying food and went off, I can only assume, to tell the house elves to stop replenishing the dishes. The Slytherins certainly looked like they had enough, pun intended. I saw several scooping various kinds of food out of their hair while shooting furious glares at my cousins and brother, who were making no secret of the fact that they had been behind the food throwing plates. I couldn't help but wonder how they got the dishes to jinx them in the first place, but I hear that Al is on very good terms with the house elves…

"Both Potters and Mr. Weasley, my office after the feast," Professor McGonagall said without looking up. Al, Hugo, and Lily were all grins and every Gryffindor was cheering and patting them on the back. I grinned slightly as a Slytherin scraped jelly off his face. The rest of the feast was uneventful; nothing exploded and nobody's hair caught on fire (Which has happened before, believe it or not. I'm telling you, they're _evil_.)

Finally, Professor McGonagall stood up, looking more solemn and stern than normal. "First off," she said, "I would like to welcome you all back for another year at Hogwarts. Once again, our caretaker, Mr. Filch (honestly, isn't it about time the bloke died?) would like me to remind you that all Weasley products are banned." Professor McGonagall's eyes sparkled a little at this; she had taught my uncles, Fred and George Weasley, the founders of Weasley Wizard Wheezes. But then she grew solemn once more. "I received some disturbing information shortly before all of you arrived. I believe that all of you need to be informed of this though it is not even in the papers yet. Fenrir Greyback has escaped from Azkaban and is once more at large."

Those of us with parents who had fought in the Second War stared horror struck at McGonagall. Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf, a very nasty one at that _and_ he was a Death Eater. It has been 26 years since Uncle Harry defeated Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters have become the things of nightmares, stories used to scare your siblings. But the older generation remembers the damage they caused, the families they tore apart. News that one had escaped was scary indeed. I've heard my parents talk about whispers; whispers that of those who wish to bring the Death Eaters back, that more dark wizards and witches will rise. This new info would do nothing to quell fears.

And it gets worse, "It would appear that Greyback is attempting to infiltrate Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall continued. Shocked silence followed that statement. "I'm telling you this, not to scare you (to late for that ma'am!), but to warn you to be on your guard. The only way for Greyback to gain entrance to this castle is with help from within. I'd hate to think that a student would ever assist someone like Greyback, but…it has happened before…" she trailed off and I glanced at Malfoy.

He was staring fixedly at his plate, but there was a faint flush to his cheeks and he had clenched his hands. Draco Malfoy had once helped a group of Death Eaters into Hogwarts, including Greyback, and it had led to the death of Albus Dumbledore.

I looked away, astounded that I had felt a pang of pity for Scorpius Malfoy. I thought it was hard having famous parents, but at least they were famous for something _good_. But Malfoy… his dad did terrible things and he may regret it now, but Malfoy has to live with always being compared to him, like he was the one who had done all those awful things. That cannot be fun. Oh God, I can't believe I'm feeling bad for Malfoy.

Thankfully, Professor McGonagall was speaking again, "I'm sorry for giving you such frightening information, but you need to know. Now, all of you, off to bed." She finished briskly as if this had been like every other welcome speech. Didn't seem very welcoming to me. "Oh except for Albus and Lily Potter and Hugo Weasley. Also if the new Head Boy and Girl would join me as well, I have some things I wish to discuss with you."

Gulp. Here goes the beginning of my work with Malfoy. Fun, fun, fun…

I got up and went over to McGonagall with about as much enthusiasm as someone going to a funeral. Malfoy noticed this and, you guessed it, smirked. I hate him. Pointedly ignoring Malfoy, I went to walk next to Al, as Professor McGonagall led us to her office. Al gave me a look and shook his head in sympathy. Al and Malfoy didn't get along either.

We didn't speak until we reached the stone gargoyles guarding the way up to the Headmistress's office. Then Professor McGonagall said, "Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy, would you kindly wait out here while I deal with while I deal with these three. I will be with you shortly." And she led my cousins and brother up the stone steps to her office. I shot Hugo a stern look as he passed me and he grinned back meekly. I have the Hermione glare down perfectly.

"Soo," Malfoy began, making quite a lame stab at conversation.

I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes. I thought I saw a flash of irritation in his ever calm eyes. Score one to Rose.

"You know, Weasley, you're going to have to speak to me eventually or at least acknowledge my presence. We're stuck together this year whether we like it or not. We could at least try to make the best of it," He said with a slight edge to his voice.

I sighed again, but with much less sarcasm than before. "Are you suggesting that we pretend that we actually _like_ each other?" I replied incredulously.

Malfoy snorted, "Doubt you could handle that, you'd probably hurt yourself. No Weasley, I mean, we should try to be civil."

"I am civil!" I said, firing up immediately. "You're the one that's not!

"Really, Weasley?" Sarcasm dripped from his voice. "Never mind," he added hastily as I opened my mouth angrily.

He leaned against the wall and his hair fell into his eyes. "You've got a temper to match that hair of yours," he commented, eyeing me.

I was horrified to feel myself blush. _Merlin, Rose, chill._ To cover it, I tossed my long red hair over my shoulder and turned my back on him.

It was true, though. I had inherited the infamous Weasley hair. It was curly, probably from my mum. And did I ever have a temper. With Malfoy constantly around, I had the feeling that I will always be close to losing it.

We didn't speak anymore. Just stood there in a silence that was becoming increasingly more awkward by the second. I was to the point of swallowing my pride and saying something to Malfoy when Al, Hugo, and Lily all tramped down the stairs. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Lily bounced up to me. Merlin was she ever full of energy. "We only got one detention, Rose," she said excitedly. "And it's not 'til next week!" I looked at her and, in spite of myself, smiled. Lily may be fifteen, but she still acted like a kid. It was great. "I'd probably wait a few weeks before doing the whole exploding Draught of Living Death thing," I said seriously. "Don't want to push McGonagall too hard." She nodded and flounced off with Hugo.

As he passed me, Al whispered in my ear, "Good luck." "I'll need it," I muttered back. He grinned and disappeared around the corner after Lily and Hugo.

Malfoy was staring at me. "Exploding Draught of Living Death? I thought you were _Head Girl._ " he asked, imitating my lofty voice with amusement in his grey eyes. It was quite an improvement over the usual coolness present there.

_Yikes, Rose. Get a grip._

"Stuff it, Malfoy" I snarled and stomped up the stairs. Malfoy followed, I _knew_ he was smirking.

"Enter," came McGonagall's brisk voice. Silently, Malfoy and I walked in and stood in front of her desk. I glanced up and made eye contact with the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. He smiled encouragingly and winked. I kinda grimaced in response.

Professor McGonagall looked Malfoy and I in the eye. She said, "Now we must discuss the serious matter of Fenrir Greyback." 

**A/N: Introducing my bad guy. Granted, he's not an OC, but I always found Fenrir Greyback to be a truly horrifying character in the books, and thought it would be interesting to bring him back. Also, thoughts on Scorpius? Rose? Lily? Al? What do you think?**


	3. Warnings and Surprises

Warnings and Surprises

Well…that wasn't _quite_ what I was expecting to hear. One look at Malfoy told me that he didn't either. He raised those blonde eyebrows at me and I shrugged. I had been expecting more of a "Hey! How ya doin'? Here's your schedules, show up for meetings, plan stuff, blah, blah, blah." That sort of thing. Not a cozy little chat about how we were going to deal with a mad werewolf, not to mention old. He's got to be really old. I mean, he's been around for awhile hasn't he? Then again, how exactly do werewolves age? Like us? I've never really thought about. Of course I've never really had a reason to wonder about the life span of a werewolf…

Okay, way off topic now. Sorry. McGonagall caught Malfoy and I's silent exchange and frowned. "As the new Head Boy and Girl, you two are, to some extent, charged with the safety of the students. I trust you know that," she said sternly.

I stared stonily back and thought acidly, _Well, there wasn't exactly any mention of a deranged werewolf attempting to break into the castle in my letter, was there? Sorry for appearing ill informed, ma'am._ Sheesh.

"Now," Professor McGonagall began, "If you would sit down." She gestured to some chairs in front of her desk. Malfoy and I sat. "There are several passageways leading in and out of the school," she continued. "I'm fairly sure that we are aware of all of them."

She was probably right. Unfortunately, since the Battle of Hogwarts, the passageways on the Marauders' Map are no longer secret.

"Those will have to be patrolled regularly, along with the rest of the castle. I'm sorry, but because of the threat of Greyback, I will need the two of you to patrol the dungeons together every other week. There just aren't enough prefects to do everything and they need a break sometimes as well." More time I'll have to spend with Malfoy. I suppressed a groan.

McGonagall, as though sensing this, shot me a sharp look before going on, "I need to impress upon you what a real and dangerous threat Greyback is. Having had personal dealings with him in the past, I know first hand how vicious he is. Even when it is not the full moon, he desires human flesh. And he especially enjoys children." I made a face. This was plain disgusting. That earned me another stern look. But come on, "desires human flesh", "especially enjoys children". Lovely mental image, McGonagall.

"Keep a look out for strange behavior in any of the students. And if you notice anything, report it immediately. Greyback cannot be allowed access to the castle; the damage he could cause would be…horrific," Professor McGonagall said now.

She turned to Malfoy with a piercing stare. "I trust you know where your loyalties lie, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy colored slightly and opened his mouth to reply, but I was faster.

"This is Scorpius you're talking to, Headmistress," I said coldly, "not Draco."

McGonagall looked taken aback, Malfoy looked astonished, but neither was as shocked as I was. I had just defended Malfoy. Me, a Weasley, just stood up for a Malfoy. Oh Merlin.

There was an awkward pause for a moment, but then McGonagall spoke, "You are quite right, Miss Weasley. I was out of place. I apologize, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy responded with a curt nod, his eyes still on me. Did he ever look confused. That made two of us, pal.

McGonagall rose and we did as well. "Remember, keep your eyes and ears open," she reminded us. "You will begin patrolling Monday. Good night and enjoy your weekend. Oh and your new common room and dorms are on the fifth floor behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan."

I really did groan this time as Malfoy said, "Not him, Professor. He's completely mental." Professor McGonagall regarded us with some amusement. "He was getting bored up in the North Tower, and kept barging in on other portraits. So we gave him a job. I'm sure you'll get used to him."

I sighed, resigned too my fate of having a totally mad portrait guard the entrance to our common room.

"Off you go," Professor McGonagall gestured towards the door. "You will receive the schedules of the Heads and prefects meetings tomorrow."

Malfoy went to the door, but I stayed where I was. "Might I have a word, Professor?" I asked. McGonagall looked at me then said to Malfoy, "Please wait outside the door, Mr. Malfoy. I would like you to wait until I am finished with Miss Weasley."

"That's not nec—" I began, but McGonagall cut me off. "I insist," She said sharply. "If you will, Mr. Malfoy." Malfoy left, but looked slightly confused.

Professor McGonagall looked at me shrewdly for a moment, and then sighed. "I know why you're here, Rose," she said calmly.

"But why _him_?" I asked allowing some desperation to creep into my voice.

"Because he was the best candidate," McGonagall replied briskly. "His marks are as good as yours and he's an extremely talented wizard. And with the threat of Greyback that's exactly who I want as Head Boy. Look," she said in a kinder voice, "I know you don't like him, but that's my final word."

I turned to leave, but stopped. I remembered her strange request of Malfoy. "Professor," I said slowly, "Why did you want Malfoy to wait for me? I don't believe it was because you didn't think I could find my way to the fifth floor by myself."

McGonagall hesitated, "Because…because latest intelligence says that Greyback is trying to get into Hogwarts to get revenge. Revenge on those who brought the downfall of Lord Voldemort. Greyback's method of revenge is to go after people's children. In this case the children of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, now Weasley." She looked at me gravely, "You, your brothers, and your cousins are in danger, Rose. It's best if you don't wander alone, especially at night."

_Wow, that was comforting_, I thought sarcastically as I left McGonagall's office. I barely noticed Malfoy as he silently followed me down the hall.

But something must have shown in my face because Malfoy asked abruptly, "What's wrong?" I thought I heard some concern in his voice. There must be some sort of bug going around. Me sticking up for Malfoy, him acting like he was concerned about me. Yeah, we're both wacked.

"Nothing." I hoped I sounded nonchalant.

"Wow, real convincing, Weasley." Obviously I didn't.

I relented, though I'm not sure why. Since when did I ever have heart to heart conversations with Malfoy? "Apparently, Greyback is after Hugo, Al, Lily, and I so he can get revenge on our parents for the downfall of Voldemort," I said in a would be calm voice. I didn't look at Malfoy, but stared fixedly ahead, refusing to show how scared I was. Not for me of course. Alright, maybe a little, but it was mostly for Lily, Hugo, and Al. Even though Al's my same age, I'm just as protective of him as I am of the others. If anything happens to them Greyback had better watch out 'cause he'll have an angry, hormonal, teenage girl with a wand on his tail.

"Greyback won't be able to get into Hogwarts," Malfoy said confidently.

"Yeah," I said skeptically.

"And even if he did, do you realize how many people there are here? What are the chances of him finding you _and_catching you on your own _and_not prepared to defend yourself? You'll be fine."

"Wow, Malfoy, you're actually being nice." I looked at him in mild surprise.

"It's been known to happen," he said wryly.

"In spite of myself, I grinned at him. What as gotten into me today? "We're almost there. Ready to deal with Sir Completely-mental-agon?"

He rolled his eyes. "Ready as I'll ever be."

I took a deep breath and approached the portrait. Sir Cadogan spotted me, let out a hoarse cry, leapt up on his mighty steed and thundered towards me.

Just kidding.

The ridiculous knight half climbed, half scrambled into his fat little pony…then slid out the other side. Finally, he managed to stay on, clopped a few paces, and promptly fell out again. Apparently, he gave up because after staggering to his feet, instead of having another o at the pony, he yelled, "Back you mangy ruffigan! You dare challenge the noble Sir Cadogan to a duel?" Malfoy snickered and I didn't recall saying anything, let alone mentioning a duel.

"Er…no. No, no we don't dare," I replied, trying to be patient. Malfoy was now shaking with suppressed laughter and I glared at him, giving the "you're not helping" look.

I continued talking to Sir Mentally Challenged Cadogan. "Look, we just need to get into our common room. We're the new Heads," I said slowly and deliberately.

"Oh hoh!" Cadogan exclaimed. Well, what's the password?" He was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. First day on the job thing, I guess.

"Erm…" I looked at Malfoy, who shrugged. I swore under my breath; McGonagall never gave us the password. Then I got an idea.

"Say, Sir Cadogan," I began, "Since we're the Heads, shouldn't _we_ be the ones to choose the password. I mean, you don't want to keep _us_ out, just those who don't belong in there."

Cadogan looked disappointed, "Well, I'm usually the one that makes up the passwords and its kinda fun…"

"Oh but it wouldn't hurt to let us make up the password, would it?" Thinking fast, I said, "I mean. You're already such a brave, heroic knight with such an important job. And your ponies so…sleek. And your armor's so…shiny and—" I stopped. I think I was laying it on a bit thick.

But Sir Cadogan practically swelled with pride. "Yes, yes, right you are. Of course, you may pick the password, fair lady."

I glanced over at Malfoy, but he was doubled over in silent laughter again. I scowled at him, but said, "Quidditch. Make the new password, Quidditch."

"An excellent choice, my lady, excellent choice." And he swung his portrait open. I elbowed Malfoy hard in the ribs and climbed through the portrait hole.

Inside was a room smaller than the Ravenclaw common room, but slightly similar in decoration. There was a sleek marble fireplace with comfortable dark blue armchairs and a couch set around it. There was also a table with chairs in the far corner of the room. On the mantel piece was a bust of Rowena Ravenclaw and above that, a large bronze eagle, the symbol of Ravenclaw. The walls were cream with a bronze stripe painted around the perimeter. There were also two doors that most certainly led to me and Malfoy's rooms.

Speaking of Malfoy…he had collapsed on one of the armchairs, laughing. Now, he looked at me and choked out, "Your armor's so _shiny_?" before roaring with laughter once more.

Reluctantly, I smiled. "Well, I didn't see you helping."

He managed to stop laughing. "You seemed to have everything under control," he replied.

With a sigh, I dropped into an adjacent armchair, "Oh well, at least we got in." No sooner had I sat down, that I jumped back up again. "I'm going to see my room," I announced to Malfoy before running to the door labeled _Rose Weasley_ and wrenching it open.

I sucked in a breath. It was perfect.

There was a large bed in the middle of the room with a cream colored comforter covered with blue roses (yeah, roses, I get it, ha, ha). The walls were bronze and covered with some of my personal things. There was a large poster of the Weird Sisters and a bunch of pictures: Katie, Amy, and I hanging out at Hogsmeade, my family last Easter, and, I couldn't help smiling at this, one of my entire extended family; all my aunts, uncles and cousins this past Christmas. Every Christmas we all get together at the Burrow, my Grandma Molly and Grandpa Arthur's house. It is absolutely insane. Chaotic. Crazy. Possibly dangerous.

Back to my room. There was a desk in one corner with several quills and embellished stationary, a large Ravenclaw banner hung over a comfortable looking chair next to a bookcase filled with all my favorites. Oh and not to mention the huge closet in which all my clothes had already been hung up. It was heaven.

I beamed around at my new room and then called out behind me, "G'night, Malfoy." Just before I closed the door to change into my pajamas, I heard a " 'Night, Weasley," in reply.

_All in all, not too bad of a day_, I thought as I lay in my new bed, trying to asleep. I have a mucho cool room and Malfoy and I haven't killed each other yet. We actually had a bit of fun. Who woulda guessed? Pretty good first day back.

Except for the tiny little problem of Fenrir Greyback being after me. Yeah, except that.

I stretched luxuriously in my awesome bed. Propping myself up on one arm, I glanced at the clock, _only 8_. And it was Saturday. I could sleep as late as I wanted.

That is, I _could've_ slept as late as I wanted to if I didn't have a _completely mental_ little brother and cousin.

I had barely closed my eyes again when I heard raised voices. _Don't be who I think it is, don't be who I think it is,_I thought desperately.

Yeah, when has _that_ ever worked?

"Come on, you stupid knight," I heard Hugo's impatient voice say. "Open up! We just want to see Rose!"

"You scurvy dogs!" came Cadogan's yell. "How dare you try to force entrance! I challenge you to a duel!"

"We don't care about your stupid duel," Lily snapped. "Let us in!"

I leapt out of my warm, comfortable bed and swearing explosively under my breath, ran to open the portrait door before Lily blasted Sir Cadogan with her wand.

Wait. Why am I pretending that's a bad thing? Oh well.

I reached the door and hurled it open. "What are you two doing here? Do you realize how freakin' early it is? Not to mention the fact that it's Saturday!" I yelled.

"All we wanted was to see the Head's common room and dorms," Hugo said in a subdued voice.

Even though he is fifteen, I can still make my brother quake when I lost my temper. It's a gift.

"I'm sorry, Hue," I said more calmly.

"What the hell is going on out here?" Malfoy appeared in his open door way pulling on a shirt and not looking happy. I had to fight the sudden urge to laugh. This wasn't the perfect and proper Malfoy I was used to seeing. This Malfoy was tousle-haired and sleepy-eyed. And he had put his shirt on backwards. Definitely not the Malfoy I was used to.

I think I preferred this one.

I grimaced at him apologetically and turned back to Hugo and Lily. "Look, why don't you guys come back later? I'm not even dressed yet." Which I wasn't. I was in short shorts and a tank top. I suddenly became very aware of the fact that Malfoy was in the room.

Lily and Hugo nodded and I smiled "Great. How 'bout sometime after I eat?"

"Alright," Lily agreed.

Hugo nodded again, "See ya, Rose." And they both left. Thank Merlin; I was not ready to deal with them yet. Or give any tours.

I closed the portrait door with a snap and banged my head against the nearest wall a few times. I was so tired. What, what could have possessed them to come a'calling this early?

When I stopped physically abusing myself and looked up, I caught Malfoy staring at me, eyebrows raised.

"What?" I growled, "You don't deal with this all the time."

He shrugged. "I didn't say anything."

I shot him a dirty look. "Hey Einstein, your shirts on backwards. And wow, Malfoy, I didn't know you got bed head," I shot at him. He looked down and realized I was right. He glared at me whilst trying to take off his shirt and flatten his hair at the same time. This resulted in him being shirtless and his hair more rumpled than ever.

I entered my room smirking.

_Well that was fun,_ I thought as I changed into some jeans and a t-shirt. _Got to yell at Hugo and Lily, got to see Malfoy without a shirt on, got-_ Hold on, back up, Rosie girl.

_See Malfoy without a shirt on?_ Sometimes I just can't understand my self.

_Alright,_ I told myself sternly, _Maybe he is more attractive, but you don't like him. Never have, never will._

_Sure…_ came a sarcastic voice from the back of my head. And hate those things. Think they know everything. _You just can't stop thinking about him._

See what I mean? _That is so not true!_ I thought angrily in reply.

_Is._

_Isn't!_

_Is._

Great. Now I'm having arguments with myself. Way to stay sane, Rose.

_This is ridiculous._ I thought furiously and slammed my compact onto my desk. Grabbing my bag, I left my room.

I was surprised to see Malfoy still in the common room, apparently waiting for me.

"Shirt on the right way," I asked in a very patronizing voice.

Malfoy scowled, but then grinned so suddenly that my breath caught. Was that ever an improvement. Why didn't he smile like that more often? Realizing what I had just thought, I felt myself heat up and quickly paid attention to what Malfoy was saying.

"If I didn't know that you had no sense of humor what so ever, Weasley, I'd say you were teasing me," he remarked, that smile still lurking on his face.

"I so have a sense of humor!" I cried indignantly, "Just because-" I stopped because he was smiling again.

"Now who's teasing whom?" I said angrily, trying to recover my dignity. Wasn't working out too well.

"Come on, Weasley, you're so easy to make fun of," he said as we left the common room together.

"Everyone says that," I muttered.

At this he laughed. "It's because you're so easy to get angry. It's highly entertaining." I scowled at him as we entered the Great Hall. I spotted Katie and Amy beckoning to me.

"Bye, Malfoy," I said, very aware of all the eyes on us since we entered the Great Hall together and not at each other's throats no less.

"See ya, Weasley," he replied and walked over to join his friends while I joined mine.

I sat down between Katie and Amy and grabbed a piece of toast. They were both giving me knowing looks. I _hate_ that. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Oh, shut up," I hissed.

"I knew it wasn't going to be that bad," Katie said triumphantly.

"I'll admit it wasn't as awful as I first thought," I snapped.

"Did he ask you out?" Amy asked.

I gagged on my toast and spewed crumbs all over my plate. "He most certainly did not!" I said in a furious whisper even though I knew she was teasing me. "Now if you two would cut it out for a moment, I have something very important to tell you." I glared hotly at the both of them.

Amy held her hands up in surrender and Katie said, "Go on. Rose. What is it?"

Quietly, I told them all that McGonagall had told me about charming Fenrir Greyback. 

By the time I'd finished, Amy had her hands over her mouth, her eyes huge and Katie was staring at me, horrified. Driven by the same impulse, my best friends hugged me tight.

"McGonagall's right, Rose. You shouldn't go about the castle alone. And neither should Al, Hugo, and Lily," Katie said seriously, while Amy nodded agreement.

"I can take-" I began.

"Care of yourself," Amy and Katie finished.

"We know, Rose, but do you honestly believe that you could take on Greyback by yourself?" Amy asked incredulously.

"No," I mumbled "But still…"

"It won't be a big deal," Amy said soothingly. Yeah, right. She wasn't the one who needed to be babysat. "Just stick with me or Katie. I bet McGonagall wants you to be with someone at all times because she probably thinks that Greyback will only try to go after you if you're alone. You could probably even stick with Al, Hugo, or Lily."

"Or Malfoy," Amy suggested slyly. I threw the rest of my toast at her while Katie giggled.

"And to think I thought you were my friends," I said dramatically. Katie and Amy just rolled their eyes.

I stood up, "Well, I promised Hugo and Lily the grand tour of the Heads common room and my dorm. Wanna come?" I asked. Amy said she would, but Katie begged off, saying she wanted to finalize some Quidditch strategies and finish setting up tryouts.

So Amy and I left the Great Hall and hunted down Hugo and Lily who were debating what was the best way to get dung bombs into the Slytherin common room without getting caught. What a good way to spend their first morning back.

Anyways, they put The Great Debate on hold and together we headed up to the fifth floor and Sir Mentalagon. We were almost there when I spotted Al.

"Hey Al!" I called, "Wanna see the Heads common room? These two," I indicated Hugo and Lily, "wanted to see it at _8 o'clock_ this morning."

Al laughed. He knew how much of a morning person I was. "Sure, why not?" he agreed and he smiled at Amy and came to walk next to her. Yes, my cousin had a crush on one of my best friends. Amy blushed. Yes, she had a crush on him too, which for the life of me I don't understand, but hey, who am I to judge?

We reached the entrance to my common room and after a few minutes haggling with Sir Cadogan, we got inside.

"Voil`a," I said with a flourish, "What'd ya think?" Amy and Lily squealed and said they loved it. After a few seconds of scrutiny, Al and Hugo decided that it was too Ravenclawish and that they preferred scarlet and gold.

Same thing when I showed them my room. More squeals from Amy and Lily. And more commentating on the Ravenclawish of it from Al and Hugo. My friends aren't very complex, are they?

"Let's see Malfoy's room," Hugo suggested, his eyes glinting.

I absolutely refused, "No way, Hugo. its rude."

"That it is," drawled Malfoy as he entered the room. "But come on, Weasley," he said to Hugo, "I don't mind. Potter?" he asked Al, who hesitated before following.

"Uh uh," he said when Lily tried to follow, "Guys only." I rolled my eyes at his immaturity. He smirked. Predictable.

A few minutes later the boys remerged and sat down on the arm chairs talking intently about Quidditch. I shook my head at the wonder of it. Albus Potter having a civil and animated conversation with Scorpius Malfoy.

Amy and Lily went into my room and as I closed the door behind them, I heard Al say, "Yeah, my dad taught me the Wronski Feint, but I was never too good at it. He stills does it sometimes when he's not at work. I'm beaten by an old man."

Malfoy laughed, "I wouldn't feel to bad, mate. Your dad coulda played for England if he didn't become an Auror."

Oh the wonder of it all.

Well, overall the rest of Saturday was uneventful. Unless you count Al and Malfoy hanging out and talking for over an hour. They even left together, said they were going to go play some Quidditch. I just cannot wrap my head around that.

I don't know about you, but I consider that a minor miracle.

I wonder what Uncle Harry will think. That could be fun...


	4. Cute Couples and an Attack

**A/N I've been getting quite a few alerts for this story, but not a lot of reviews. The review button is just a liiiitle to the right of the alerts so think about giving it a push, yeah? Many thanks. Oh, and enjoy the chapter.**

Sometimes I really, really hate my friends. Like right now for example. Just because I asked Malfoy if he wanted to play some Quidditch, they immediately assume I like him. Which, for the record, I don't. The saga of the knowing looks continues.

I mean, come on! It's just a bit of Quidditch, not a freakin' _date_! Friends play it together all the time. I'm not saying that Malfoy and I are friends of course. No, not at all.

I really am quite pathetic, aren't I?

Oh well. Malfoy and I headed out to the pitch. It is physically painful for me to admit that I really enjoyed myself. Between the constant bickering of course. Apparently it kills him to agree with me on anything. Its ditto for me too. And yet Amy _insists_ that we'd make the perfect couple. Yeah. Right.

Anyway, after I bid him goodbye, I called Al, Hugo, and Lily together for a little family conference. I realized that I hadn't talked to them about the whole Fenrir Greyback being after us thing.

How I could forget something like that I'll never know.

After we were all seated in the Heads' common room, I looked Hugo and Lily in the eye (I was guessing Al already knew. Since we're the same age, I figured McGonagall had pulled him aside as well) and said, "Fenrir Greyback is after us." I'm not one for preamble.

Al's face was calm, Hugo looked nervous and Lily's eyes were wide and scared.

Then Al broke the tense silence, "I know, Rose. McGonagall told me yesterday." Figured as much.

"Well, I bloody well didn't know!" Hugo burst out suddenly. "What's going on! Why us?" He looked so angry.

But I knew my brother. He was using his anger to hide his fear. It's happened before. Like when I dumped a bunch of spiders in his bed before he got in and he came across as livid because the spiders contaminated his sheets or something, but he really had the living daylights scared out of him. Yeah like that.

I gazed at my brother calmly. "Greyback is after us because he used to be a big supporter of Voldemort and our parents help bring Voldemort's downfall."

"But why is he after us then?" Lily asked, still looking scared, but now a little curious.

I turned to look at her, ""Because that how Greyback gets his revenge. By going after people's children."

Lily shuddered, "That's awful"

"That's also _us_," Al said. "Now, McGonagall told me never to roam the corridors."

"Told me the same," I quipped. Al glared at me before continuing. "As I was_saying_, she also wants you two," he said to Hugo and Lily, "to do the same. Stick with a group and report anything suspicious. In fact, I'd recommend not even going near the dungeons," he added darkly.

"Well, I have no choice," I said resignedly.

"Why?" Al asked, surprised and sounding a little concerned.

"'Cause Malfoy and I have to patrol down there every other week," I replied. "Not enough prefects to go around apparently."

Al now looked wholly unconcerned, which came as a kind of shock to me. "Well, in that case, you'll be safe with Scorpius," he said lightly.

"I can take care—" I began my signature reply hotly, but then I realized what he had said. My mouth dropped open. "_Scorpius_? Since when have you two been on a first name basis?" I asked, after closing my mouth before I caught any flies. I was astounded, needless to say. We're talking about Malfoy and Al!

"Since that day he showed Hugo and me his room," Al replied. "We started talking and you know, well, I've never hated him. Same for him. We just sorta inherited the old grudge, with our fathers and all. We figured that that's their issue and we can be friends if we want to. We've really got a ton of things in common."

That dang mouth of mine dropped open again. I hoped there weren't any flies in the vicinity.

"He's not too bad you know," Al said, looking at me shrewdly in a way I did not like at all.

"Of course not… I mean, I know… Yes he is!" I blustered, feeling myself go as red as my hair.

Al winked at me, Hugo raised his eyebrows, and Lily gave me one of those knowing looks. This meeting was _not_ going how I had planned.

"I know what you're all insinuating," I said, trying to regain some dignity. Failing again of course. "And it's not true. Not at all!" I practically screamed the last three words at them before striding to my room and slamming it behind me.

I heard their laughter from through my door.

"She's totally into him," Lily sighed. 

I ground my teeth.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," Hugo said warningly.

I slammed my head into the wall.

Al laughed, "If you don't like it, imagine how Uncle Ron will feel."

I buried my head into my pillow and shrieked like a banshee.

Well after I finished freaking out, Katie came up to the common room and treated me to a _very_ long-winded Quidditchh oriented speech all about the fact that we are going to win the cup this year and how _exactly_ we were going to do that.

Why she felt the need to tell me all this now, I have no idea, but whatever.

When she finally stopped(honestly, there should be some sort of _fine_ for talking that long) she told me that she had set up tryouts for the week after next and that I'd better be there. I promised that I would and as she left she called back to me, "Oh yeah, by the way Rose, could you let Malfoy know about the tryouts? Hope that won't be too much trouble," she added with a way too smug look on her face. What on _earth_was Al telling people? I growled as she climbed out of the portrait hole, grinning.

Ten minutes later, when I was reading calmly and completely relaxed, I might add, Amy came bursting in. "Oooh, I saw you and Malfoy playing Quidditch together today!" she gushed. "You can't deny you don't like him now!"

"Yes, I can," I snarled, on my feet in a flash, no longer calm nor relaxed. "What is with everyone! Why does everyone have it in their heads that I like Malfoy!"

Instead of answering, she said, "Can you honestly tell me that you have the same feelings for him that you've had for the last six years?" Without waiting for my answer, she strode from the room.

I sank down on the couch and put my head in my hands. Why did my life have to be so complicated?

I didn't want to think about the question Amy had posed to me because I knew what my answer would be. And I am not ready to face that. Being a teenager sucks sometimes. Even if you do have magical powers and attend a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Screw it all.

Well, after all that drama, the rest of my day was pretty boring, so I won't get into it here. Just another Sunday.

I woke up Monday refreshed and ready to start my final year at Hogwarts. The first class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts and was easily my favorite subject. Partly because it was taught by Teddy Lupin. Well, at school he's Professor Lupin, but he's a family friend along with Neville Longbottom.

Uncle Harry is Teddy's godfather and he's also good friends with my parents, all of whom knew Teddy's parents, Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, who died in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Teddy, I mean Professor Lupin, is really good at what he does. He's been teaching for several years now a fact that for some reason amazes my parents. Anyway, he knows his stuff and how to make normally boring things interesting. And I'm telling you, if we'd had to have another class like Binns, I don't know what I'd do…

I walked down to the classroom with Amy and Katie, who had apparently forgiven me for my blow out yesterday.

Professor Lupin ushered us inside, giving me an extra warm smile that I returned.

We entered the classroom. Katie went and sat next to her boyfriend Aaron Finch-Fletey and Al beckoned for Amy to sit next to him. I was affronted; even though it's a NEWT class and students from all different houses are in it either Katie or Amy and I sit together.

I glared at both of them and went to sit next to Malfoy; it was the only seat left. Amy and Al were right in front of us so I couldn't help but smirk and whisper, "Why, don't you two make a cute couple."

Instead of being embarrassed, Amy and Al shot back, "Right back at you."

Malfoy snorted as I said sarcastically, "Yeah, riiight."

"Alright everyone. Settle down," Professor Lupin called. "Now, you guys are now going to be doing NEWT level work. It's going to be very difficult. However, we are first going to finish studying curses. We didn't quite get to all of that last year and I want to do so before starting anything more advanced."

Charlie Boot raised his hand. Us Ravenclaws dominate most NEWT classes. "Sir, are you going to be showing us the Unforgiveables this year?" Everyone looked at Professor Lupin, faces filled with anticipation. At Hogwarts, all the students are shown what the Unforgiveable Curses look like in their Sixth or Seventh year. They are Dark Magic and you get thrown into Azkaban for the rest of your life for using one. Cruciatis, Imperious, and Avada Kedavra. No one in our year had yet to witness one and most were keen to.

But I wasn't. I had heard enough from my mum, dad, and Uncle Harry to know how horrible they are.

But Professor Lupin was shaking his head, "No I will not be showing you," he answered and the class groaned. "But," he went on, ignoring them, "Someone else will. Later this term, my godfather and friend Harry Potter will be coming in to show you exactly how these curses look."

That sure got my classmates excited. Me? Not so much.

"Dungeons are lovely this time of year," I muttered as Malfoy and I trudged through the dark, musty corridors.

The rest of my academic day after DADA was normal.

Meaning boring.

After dinner I played some Exploding Snap with Amy and Katie. Gotta love that game. I mean the cards _explode_. Dear Lord, I sound like Lily.

Anyways, at nine, I met up with Malfoy to tour the dungeons.

He now looked at me dryly and shook his head, "I much prefer the Forbidden Forest. At night."

I shrugged dismissively, "Been there loads of times. Dungeons far out shine it."

"I beg to differ."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Oh am I?"

"Of course."

"No I'm not," he glared at me.

"Yes, you are," I glared back.

"No, I'm not."

"_Yes_, you are."

We can't be in each other's presence without bickering. But we'd still make the perfect couple, of course. _Obviously_.

After a moment of mutual glaring, Malfoy suddenly grinned.

"What?" I demanded.

"Us," he said. "We argue about the stupidest things. We weren't even being serious."

I grudging grinned back, "We make quite a pair."

We continued on our way in companionable silence. Since we started, we have already pulled several couples out of broom closets and sent them to their common rooms with several lost House Points. There is nothing more awkward than pulling snogging couples off each other.

We rounded a corner. I looked at Malfoy "What's up with you and Al? Why suddenly this change?" I asked. Once again the two of them had disappeared for a few hours playing Quidditch among other things like old friends. 

Which they definitely are _not_.

Malfoy shrugged, "I've never hated him. We just both inherited the old grudge. We've had our fair share of exchanged hexes, but compared to our fathers' it was pretty mild. We never talked, but once we did…well, we have loads in common. Why?" he asked curiously.

"Just thinking," I said elusively.

I actually had been thinking. About how Al and Malfoy were now friends and how I've gotten to know him so much better and how maybe Malfoy and I could possibly be friends too. Scary thought, ay? I know I've completely lost it. What else is new?

Suddenly Malfoy stopped. "What's that?" he said, pointing ahead. At the end of the corridor, sparks were flying from around the corner. Wand sparks.

"Let's check it out," I whispered. This had suddenly become a lot more interesting than I had first thought it would be. We both drew our wands and cautiously advanced forward.

Cue tense music. Speed it up…and then BOOM. It was like someone had switched all the lights in the world off. It was pitch black. It had happened so fast. I don't like the dark and I don't like being caught unawares. I panicked, I completely froze up. I don't know how long I stood there my breath coming very fast. Finally, I got a grip on myself. This was a lot more serious than some students messing around after curfew. I had to move and get help.

I couldn't see anything. Including where I was going. SMACK! I ran straight into a wall. Very smooth.

'Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder" I thought to myself as I groped along the wall, trying to find my out of the impenetrable darkness.

Then I realized I didn't hear Scorpius. Where had he gone?

Then, I could see a light ahead of me, but before I could move toward it, I heard voices close by. Very, very, close by. I had waited too long. Someone was coming.

"Where are they?" a raspy voice asked. I knew they were talking about Malfoy and I. There weren't really any other choices. I pressed myself against the wall.

"The…the Malfoy boy appears to have escaped," another voice replied, sounding very nervous. I strained my ears trying to recognize it, but whenever I thought I did, the name slipped away. "But the Weasley girl we believe is still here."

I felt myself go cold. "Yes. She is." That creepy voice said thoughtfully. "After all, she is the one I am looking for."

I didn't even stop to think. I turned and sprinted for that light. I suddenly knew who the raspy voice belonged to. This is _so_ not my day.

"She must not get away!" Another voice I couldn't place yelled. Light filled the corridors again and before I could take another step, Raspy voice cried, "Crucio!" and I was on the ground writhing and screaming in agony as white hot knives pierced me all over. It was the most excruciating pain I had felt in my entire life. I don't know how the whole castle wasn't awake because of my shrieking.

"Let it end. Let it end," I begged in my mind, "I want to die." Through the tears streaming down my face, I saw a cloaked and masked figure with his wand trained on me as others raced past. "Go, go!" it urged. As the last one passed, the figure lifted his wand and the pain ceased. I lay gasping and panting, unable to will myself to move.

The figure leaned over me and I stared up in horror. "What a pleasure it is to meet you, Rose Weasley. I have been longing to meet you." The mouth beneath the masked grinned and confirmed my worst fear. Long, inhuman teeth filled his mouth. Greyback.

The werewolf bared his teeth and leaned in, no doubt about to tear my throat out. I tried to move, to scream, but it was if my body had shut down, was preparing for death.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain. But it didn't come. That was a pleasant surprise. Instead, I heard running footsteps and Malfoy shout, "Stupefy!"

My eyes flew open in time to see Greyback dodge Malfoy's Stunning Spell and race away. But before he turned a corner, he pointed his wand at the ceiling and screamed, "Reducto!"

It exploded. Right above me. Not good. Once again, not my day.

With my body, suddenly deciding to work again, I scrambled to my feet and tried to get out of the way. I wasn't fast enough. Falling stone caught me on the shoulder and then another on my leg. I felt it slice through my leg and blood pour down my calf. I had no hope of getting out of the way now. Pieces of ceiling rained down on me. I covered my head to try and protect myself, but I was being cut to pieces.

But then, strong arms were around me and I was pulled from beneath the collapsing ceiling and shoved up against the wall. Malfoy braced his hands on either side of me. He was using his own body to shield mine.

I leaned against the wall. My leg was throbbing and I hurt all over. I was losing a lot of blood; I was bleeding from more than half a dozen places. I was still feeling the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. Basically, I was not doing so hot.

Finally, the ceiling stopped caving in and the rubble cleared. I slid to the floor. I was whoozy and light-headed from the loss of blood. All I wanted was to close my eyes, to let go. But _someone_ wouldn't let me.

"Rose. Rose!" Malfoy's anxious face swam in and out of focus. He looked frightened and extremely worried. "Come on, Rose! Stay with me! Stay awake!" Malfoy urged. "Can you walk," he asked desperately.

_"You try walking after your legs have been sliced open and been pulverized by falling stone,"_ I thought blearily. It took every ounce of my will power to shake my head.

Then, I was lifted from the ground. Malfoy was carrying me. He just would not let me go.

I only remember bits and pieces of what happened after that. I'm pretty sure I passed out a few times.

The next thing I recall is Malfoy shouting at the stone gargoyle in front of McGonagall's office. He finally guessed the right password and pounded on her door, until, pulling on a dressing gown, Professor McGonagall appeared looking disheveled.

"What on earth …" she began in a raised voice, but then she saw me in Malfoy's arms. Yeah, that should be enough to tip anyone off that something isn't right. Not to mention the fact that I was covered in blood and only semi-conscious. 'Oh my," she gasped. "What ha-"

But Malfoy cut her off, "We were attacked. I thought you needed to know right away." His voice broke, "But Rose is hurt really badly."

McGonagall conjured up a stretcher and Malfoy gently laid me on it. The only thing I was really aware of was how much I hurt. How I wished it would stop. I think I passed out her because the next thing I remember was Madam Patil (Padma) bending over me, looking very concerned.

"Lost a lot of blood." I only heard snippets of conversation. "Owl her parents." "Must get her brother and cousins." "You can leave, Mr. Malfoy." "I'm staying with Rose." Out I went again.

I kkept passing in and out of consciousness. I was told later that I had a dangerously high fever and was delirious. I do remember thrashing around in my bed, sweat pouring off of me. I recall crying out a few times.

But Malfoy was there; he was there the entire time. He cooled off my burning forehead and helped Madam Patil. I think it was around 1 o'clock in the morning by the time I finally fell into a restless sleep.

"Merlin, why do I ache so much?" was my first blissfully innocent thought when I awoke several hours later. But then the events of the previous night came rushing back to me. Already, I felt ten times worse.

I raised my head (which, by the way, was unbelievably painful) and looked around. Malfoy and Al were on either side of my bed, looking like they had been there all night. They were sound asleep.

But I guess not that sound because when I lay back down, I groaned a little and they were instantly awake.

"I'm fine," I croaked., to stem the flow of insistent 'Are you alright's' and 'Are you _sure_ you're alright's that were sure to come.

"I'm going to call Madam Patil," Al said, deprived of his original question.

"Oh please don't," I begged. I really didn't want to deal with her fussing just yet. I looked at Malfoy for support, he shrugged, but I could've sworn he was laughing at me.

Al gave me a "you-didn't- honestly-think-that-would-work" look, and called Madam Patil. Who fussed over me and told me I would have to stay another night. To add to my abounding joy, she also informed me that my parents would be arriving soon.

I argued relentlessly with her until she finally lost patience and burst out, "My dear girl! You almost _died;_ of course your parents are coming! And adding on that, how could you honestly expect to get away with only one night in the hospital wing? You are staying and if you argue anymore I will call the Headmistress!" And she stormed away.

"Well," I remarked into the resounding silence, "that was fun." Al and Malfoy, who up until that moment were badly concealing their amusement, howled with laughter.

"You're unbelievable sometimes, Rose," Al said, once they had calmed down.

"I know I am," I replied easily, leaning back against my pillows. Despite what I was telling everyone, I was exhausted. But I wouldn't get to rest _quite_ yet.

Hugo and Lily practically trampled Madam Patil trying to get to me. I hugged both of them hard and assured them that I was fine. My mum and dad showed up after them. Mum was crying and Dad was pale and both looked worried. I assured _them_ that I was fine, too and within the hour they were off to see McGonagall to hear about what had happened. At the time, I didn't notice that Malfoy had mysteriously disappeared during my parents' visit.

Anyway, Katie and Amy soon appeared carrying tons of sweets. When they finally left, I was extremely exhausted. Madam Patil gave me a Sleeping Potion and I took it all in one gulp. Sleepytime. Yeah, I was pretty loopy.

When I awoke again, Al was asleep, but Malfoy was awake. Those two had never left my side yeastergay, except for the that one time Malfoy disappeared for a short while. He must have been briefing McGonagall more thoroughly on what had happened. Both had refused to leave for the night.

I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked malfoy in the eye. "Thank you," I whispered. "Back there in the dungeons you saved my life. Twice."

He looked away, embarrassed. 'It was nothing," he mumbled.

I rolled my eyes, I hated when people said that. "It certainly wasn't nothing," I stated firmly. "Give me a break, Scorpius."

He blinked at the use of his first name and I grinned at him.

Some things just automatically make you like someone (not like that, you hopeless romantics). And not all of us require mountain trolls for it to happen. Deranged werewolves will do just fine.

Well, since _friends_ usually call each other by their first names, _Scorpius_and I chatted together until Al woke up and challenged us to a game of Exploding Snap.

So, there you have it. I've completely lost it and entered a new phase in my life. The 'I'm friends with Scorpius Malfoy' phase. Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into?

**A/N So what do you think so far? Good, bad, stupid, complete waste of time why am I still sitting here reading this? Let me know. Even if you hated it. Constructive criticism works wonders. **


	5. Quite A Day

Chapter 7

"Why me?" I wondered out loud for about the twentieth time as my new found friend and I trudged back inside the castle after a rigorous Quidditch practice. It was amazing how since deciding _not_ to hate each other any more, how well Scorpius and I get along. Who woulda guessed?

Tryouts had been less than a week ago, but Katie wanted to see how the new members worked with the returning ones. So she had scheduled bloody Quiddich practice every freakin' day. Actually this one was even in the middle of the day. During break.

But wait, there's more. Our new chaser (last one graduated) Leslie Fawcett needed some pointers and extra practice (how do you fit in extra practice when we already have them every bloody day?). So who did Katie chose to help her out- moi.

I'm generally a kind-hearted person who loves to help others out. Not so in this case.

"She's not that bad," Scorpius said bracingly.

I scoffed, "She's unbearable! And her giggling! It's driving me mad! I mean, we're complete opposites; she's gorgeous, completely brainless, girly, practically drools when she sees you… the list goes on and on."

Come on, Rose, now you're being over dramatic," Scorpius said. "First off, you're not exactly ugly; take a look in the mirror sometime, as for the brainless part, I can't really argue with that, and you're not that much of a tom boy 'cause I've seen you where dresses before. And as for the drooling over me, well, who doesn't?" he added cockily.

I whacked him upside the head.

"Oh, ha, ha," I saqid acidly. "Oh well, Katie wouldn't have asked me if she didn't think I could do it." I paused, "Sometimes I wish she didn't have so much confidence in me."

Scorpius laughed, 'Come on. Break's almost over. We're gonna have to run if we want to make it to History of Magic on time."

"Like Binns will notice if we come in late," I scoffed. "Dying didn't even catch his notice." But none the less, we grabbed our things and sprinted to History of Magic, aka an hour of solid boredom.

Twenty minutes later, having listened to Binns drone on and on about…I honestly have no idea, my brain couldn't take it anymore and drifted back to the issue that had been weighing so heavily on my mind lately.

Fenrir Greyback. Where was he now? How did he get into the castle in the first place? Who was helping him? And where did the guy get his toothpaste because man, did he ever need an up grade. That breath was a killer. Pun intended.

Of course, I was pretty sure the same questions were going through Professor McGonagall's mind as well. Except for the toothpaste one.

As soon as Scorpius had come to her that night a few weeks ago, she had sent the teachers and ghosts out to search the school. They found nothing. It was a lot like that time when Uncle Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, broke into the castle, so I'm told. Except for the fact that Sirius got in as an Animagis, was trying to keep someone safe, and was after a traitorous murder. None of which is true about Greyback, by the way.

After I was attacked, Al, Hugo, and Lily were forbidden to go anywhere by themselves, especially at night. This was the same for me of course. Our friends took this up a little too enthusiastically in my opinion. And my parents just added to it. My mom even wrote to Katie and Amy, encouraging them to keep an eye on me. I mean, come on! That's my mom for you.

But no one was as bad as Scorpius. He absolutely refused to let my go anywhere by myself. Even if it meant dropping whatever he was doing to accompany me. It was sweet, but rather annoying. He was worse than Al.

By now, the original terror everyone had felt when they had been in formed about Greyback and then his attack on me was starting to wear off. With the exception of Al, Hugo, Lily and I of course. I knew I was going to be having nightmares about that night for a long time. But other than us being freaked out, things were starting to settle down.

The bell rang and I leapt to my feet, relieved that this class was finally over.

"My brain died in there," I muttered to Katie as we left the classroom. She nodded empathically in agreement while Amy fought off a yawn. She always falls asleep in History of Magic. Can't really blame her.

Next we had Herbology. It wasn't one of the most interesting subjects to me, but I like Professor Longbottom. He really knows his magical plants. Why anyone would _want_ to I don't really know…

Anyway, we entered the green house, ready for a lesson filled with excitement and fun.

No, not really.

We emerged an hour later and I was rubbing my sore neck. The Devil's Snare I was pruning decided it would be fun to try and strangle me. Little Bugger. Scorpius got it off of me before it did any permanent damage though.

"I really hate that class," I muttered darkly.

"Welcome folks, to the first Quidditch match of the season. Awesome and not to mention talented, Gryffindors vs slimy and cheating Slytherins!"

"Minerva Jordan!" Professor Longbottom rebuked the very excited daughter of Lee Jordan. That man is hilarious. He and Uncle George are like a duel comedy act.

"Sorry, Professor. May I call you Neville? No? Well, just thought I'd ask," Minnie seemingly inherited her father's best traits. "Here comes Madame Chang with the balls now. There goes the snitch…then the bludgers…and the Quaffle. And they're off! Hugo Weasley in possession of the Quaffle. That boy has become quite the player. I admit I'd had my doubts. Running into the goalpost in your first tryout is not the best way to begin a good Quidditch career. Yes, yes Professor, this is _completely_ relevant to the game."

"Finnigan nearing Weasley. Weasley passes. Nice catch Jacob! Finnigan nearing the Slytherin goal posts. Come on Jacob, you're better than that greasy slimeball! And he scores! Excellent. 10 points to Gryffindor!"

I laughed at Minnie's antics. She's a sixth year Gryffindor and a great commentator. Though I think she sometimes drives Professor Longbottom to his wits end. Like right now.

He was shouting at her and she was skipping away from him, all the while saying, "Sorry, Professor. Of course I'll tell it unbiased. I always do. Anyways, Flint in possession now, then Nott, back to Flint. Oooh hit in the back of the head by a bludger. What a shame. Yes, I am being sincere, Professor. It breaks my heart that you would even think otherwise. Weasley back in possession of the Quaffle, going down the pitch…and he scores! 20 points to Gryffindor!

After Hugo scored the match turned considerably more violent. It was always like that when Gryffindor played Slytherin and most likely always will be.

I was pretty confident with our Ravenclaw team though. We were getting good. How could we not be with those ridiculous hours Katie was having us put in? And I know she won't stop telling me "I told you so" when we thrash Slytherin when we play them a few days before Christmas break. Though that was a month away we're still practicing everyday, though that might stop soon because our keeper, Annie Lexon, almost had a nervous breakdown.

"It looks like Al Potter has spotted the Snitch. Not only cute, but an excellent flyer. Burke doesn't stand a chance. I mean that in looks as well. He's got it! Potter caught the Snitch! Gryffindor wins their first game of the season!"

I jumped up and down, cheering for al as he did a victory lap. Oh sure, I was really happy that Gryffindor won, but we were totally going to kick their butts.

When Al stopped flaunting his victory and came over to me, I told him this. He grinned. "You guys are so going down."

"You wish," I replied. Just some friendly competition.

Suddenly, I felt something white hot rush past my ear. I whirled around in time to hear Scorpius shout, "Protego!" and see a shield come up between Al and block a rather nasty jinx a Slytherin Quidditch player had just tried to hit him with. I assumed he had just tried to get me too, but for Merlin's sake, I'm not even a Gryffindor! Stupid Slytherins. They don't even now what friendly competition is.

I smiled at Scorpius, 'Thanks for that."

"Yeah, thanks, mate," Al added, grateful that he had been saved a trip to the Hospital Wing.

"No problem," Scorpius replied, grinning. "Wish I coulda cursed the little git though," he added regretfully. "Hexing someone when there back is turned is a cowardly thing to do."

"Coward am I, Malfoy?"

"Scorpius regarded the scrawny Slytherin coolly. Nott I think his name was. It was surprising that he had stuck around. Usually once performing magic when they shouldn't have, they run off. Wimps.

Nott continued to sneer, "At least I don't mingle with blood traitors. Protect them even."

Oh for Merlin's sake. Nobody says blood traitor anymore. Leave it to the Notts to continue to raise their kids by those old standards.

But the little twerp wasn't done yet, "And I was told that you Malfoys used to be so great. But I wonder that if that is true, how did you sink so low?"

I felt Scorpius tense next to me. My own temper was rising. Who did the bloody Slytherin think he was? And yet the bloke still couldn't shut it. "And you weren't even good enough to make it into Slytherin. Ravenclaw. Now that's a joke." Al had moved to his friend's side, his eyes hard. Scorpius was rigid with anger. Honestly, it amazed me that he was still in control of himself. Better person than me.

I brushed past both of them, totally livid. Nobody should be talked to that way. "Oh yeah?" I snarled in his face. "Scorpius is a better guy than you'll ever be. You and all your Slytherin cronies."

Now it was my turn to sneer, "What's your name? Oh yeah. Nott. Mmmm, that name sounds familiar." I pretended to think, "Riiight, I remember now. Big supporters of Voldemort. Tell me is Grandaddy still locked up in Azkaban.?"

Nott turned a nasty shade of red, "What's it to you Weasley? Defending Malfoy?" he shook his head in disgust and looked at Scorpius, "Guess your father's so much of a loser now that he doesn't care if you associate with scum like this," he gestured at me. So rude. "Whose mother is a mudblood."

He'd officially gone too far. Both Al and Scorpius lunged at Nott and started pummeling him. I didn't even try to stop them, I was so angry. How dare he insult my mother! Nobody cares about blood status anymore. And if people are starting to again, they should remember last time. I wasn't even alive then, but I know it was bad. Whenever my parents or Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry talk about it the look in their eyes is unforgettable.

Soon a large crowd had gathered around the three fighting boys and was egging them on.

Teddy, er, Professor Lupin arrived at a run and pushed his way through the crowd. He pulled the boys off each other. Well, Al and Scorpius off Nott actually. The bloke was a mess; he was huddled on the ground whimpering. Serves him right.

"I can't believe it!" "Fighting!" Teddy said in disgust. "Avery, take Nott up to the Hospital Wing. You two," he glared at Al and Scorpius, "will come with me to the Headmistress's office."

"I should come to professor," I spoke up. "I was involved as well." Teddy looked surprised, but nodded curtly. I know, I know, why would I actually want to go to McGomagall's office? Well, I figured that if I told Professor McGonagall what Nott had said and how Al and Scorpius hadn't actually done anything to bring it on, she might be a little easier on them. Least I could do.

We silently followed a fuming Teddy. He was really mad; I've only seen him like this a couple of times. His normally turquoise hair was a savage red.

I glanced at the two boys on either side of me. Al was staring at the ground and Scorpius had a very scary look on his face. No way was I going to try to talk to him now. Both boys were slightly injured. Scorpius' jaw was bleeding and a fantastic bruise was forming on the side of Al's face.

We entered McGonagall's office. She looked thunderous. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy—" she began.

Good lord, how many times had she had to say that I wonder?

'Well, well, well, I can't say I'm surprised," a snide voice interrupted her. McGonagall sighed angrily, "Now is not the time, Severus."

Al gave me a startled glance. My eyebrows rose. Severus?

My eyes darted up to the source of the voice. It belonged to a portrait of the Headmaster directly before McGonagall. He was a thin man wearing all black with curtains of greasy black hair surrounding a pallid, at the present time, sneering face. All in all, not very pleasant. And I thought you painted a portrait of someone before they died.

I read the name below the portrait: Severus Snape. I looked at Al, who was totally confused.

"Is there a problem?" The portrait of Professor Snape asked angrily. We both ignored him.

"What exactly did Uncle Harry tell you about the man whom he gave you your middle after?" I asked Al. Severus couldn't be a very popular name, but I was really hoping that this seriously unpleasant man was not Al's namesake.

"He didn't say much," Al replied. "He said that I was named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. Albus was obvious, but Severus… Oh and he also said that one was a Slytherin and was the bravest man he knew."

"He couldn't possibly be talking about that bloke," I said unbelievingly, gesturing at the portrait.

I noticed at this point that McGonagall looked like she was trying not to smile, but the portrait of Severus Snape looked like it was in shock. Snape… I had heard that name before. Then I had it. I turned to Al. "Do you remember two summers ago, you, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Ginny were at our house and we decided to eavesdrop on them and my parents' conversation?" I asked him. He nodded.

"Well," I continued, "I remember now that Dad mentioned someone named Snape."

"He wasn't very complimentary if I recall correctly," Al said thoughtfully.

"Not at all," I agreed. "Something about Potion classes from hell, calling Mum an 'insufferable know it all', and hating Uncle Harry. Then Dad called him a slimy git.

"But then," AL continued. This was all coming back to us now. Funny how that happens sometimes. "Aunt Hermione completely lost it and started yelling at Uncle Ron that he shouldn't talk about Snape that way because without him they probably wouldn't even be there and Voldemort would have won."

Professor Mcgonagall was now openly smiling and poor Scorpius was looking completely bewildered. Frankly, I felt the same way.

"You mean, that man, that man behind me?" I said incredulously. "What did he do?"

"Loads. It's quite an impressive story, really."

Al and I jumped. Uncle Harry was leaning against the door frame, apparently having heard our conversation.

"What?" AL asked curiously.

"Now is not really time is it? Seeing for what I was called here for." Uncle Harry replied, his eyes twinkling.

"Why did you name your son after me?" the portrait of Snape asked abruptly, as if the words had been forced from his throat.

Uncle Harry looked at his former Professor, "Because you saved my life several times and those memories were the reason Voldemort was defeated," he said simply, before turning away again.

Snape looked rather flattered.

Uncle Harry looked sternly at Al, "So what's all this about fighting?"

"Yes, Scorpius, I would like to know the same thing." A cold voice said. Draco Malfoy entered the room. Scorpius was like a younger copy of Mr. Malfoy. No wonder Professor McGonagall is reminded of him when she sees Scorpius. Mr. Malfoy and Uncle Harry nodded at each other and Professor McGonagall beckoned for us all to sit down. 

"Your fathers have been called hear because of your lack of discipline. Fighting is a serious offense at Hogwarts"

I don't recall parents ever being called in before but what ever. She's the boss.

"Now let's hear your story as Mr. Nott is currently in the Hospital Wing."

"Well," Al began. "We had just beaten the Slytherins at Quidditch and, predictably, they were really sore about it. One player, Nott, tried jinx Rose and me."

"He missed me," I put in helpfully.

"And," Scorpius continued. "I saw what was about to happen and cast a shield charm in front of Al that blocked the jinx."

I saw both their fathers start at that. They had obviously assumed that their sons had been fighting each other. I smiled inwardly at how wrong they were.

Al said, 'Then that Nott bloke decided to have a go at Scorpius and when Rose lost her temper and defended him, he continued to insult Scorpius and then his father."

Scorpius looked furious again, "In addition to that he called Rose scum and Al's aunt a mudblood."

'That's when we attacked him." They said together.

"And I didn't stop them," I said proudly. McGonagall looked quite surprised at that, as did Uncle Harry, even Mr. Malfoy did. He obviously knew my mother.

"Why not?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Because," I said savagely, "No one deserves to be talked to that way, nobody calls my mother a mudblood, and I am so not scum." Al and Scorpius grinned at the indignant way I said that.

"You're telling me," Uncle Harry said to Al, running a hand through his hair. "That you attacked this Nott because he insulted Draco?" He looked as if he could not wrap his head around that.

"Yeah, and he was being down right awful to Scorpius." Al confirmed.

"And you," Mr. Malfoy looked at Scorpius, "fought that boy because he called Rose Weasley scum and her mother a mudblood?"

"Yes, dad." Scorpius looked his father in the eye.

The two of them were speechless. Their sons had gotten into a fight with a Slytherin because they were defending each other and their families. That was quite a lot to grasp.

McGonagall cleared her throat; they had remained speechless for a while. Uncle Harry jumped to his feet. "Right, well, I'd better be getting back to work. Al," he put a hand on his son's shoulder, "Good job. Not for fighting, but for defending your friend. Minerva, I hope to see you again soon, though hopefully not for this sort of thing," he said ruefully and she smiled.

"Bye, Harry dear. Oh, the matter we discussed earlier I would like you to give it some serious thought."

He nodded, but before he could leave I said, "Uncle Harry would you mind not mentioning this to my dad? If I'm gonna get disowned I'd rather do it on my own time."

"See what you've done Scorpius? You're going to get the poor girl disowned." Mr. Malfoy said and Scorpius grinned.

I threw my hands up in the air. "Why does he get the reasonable father?" I asked the wall. Naturally, the wall didn't answer.

Uncle Harry chuckled as he left the room, "Don't worry Rose. I don't want to be the one to bring Ron that news either."

Mr. Malfoy stood up. "I'm proud of you, son." This was said so quietly that I'm not even sure I heard it. But by the way Scorpius looked, I'm pretty sure I had.

"Good luck with your father, Miss Weasley," he said. I grimaced and I could have sworn he was smiling slightly as he bid Professor McGonagall good bye and swept out of the room.

McGonagall sat back down behind her desk. "I normally don't call parents in for something like fighting unless there are several offenses. But seeing your fathers' reactions to why you were fighting was too good to pass up."

I grinned. I knew she had a sense of humor.

"Now, Rose, since you were not actually involved in the fight you will not receive detention. But Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy, you will both serve a week's worth detention with Hagrid."

The boys barely concealed grins; they didn't even consider that a punishment.

Professor McGonagall seemed to know this because she ushered us out of her office with a slight smile on her face and amusement in her eyes.

Scorpius and I entered our common room after leaving Al on his way up to Gryffindor Tower. I hadn't realized how close the three of had become. Al and I have always been close, but Scorpius… Well, that was new. I guess today kind of finalized it. Scorpius protected Al, I defended Scorpius, and Al and Scorpius beat a guy to pulp because he insulted me, my mum, Scorpius and Scorpius' dad.

I sighed at the weirdness of it all and began trying to remember exactly when I had lost my mind and my world was turned upside down.

"What?" Scorpius asked, giving me a look.

"Oh nothing," I replied. "Just a very strange day, I guess."

"No kidding," he agreed so wholeheartedly that I had to laugh.

"But seriously, Rose," he now sounded like he really wanted to say something to me. "This is the second time you defended me and, well," he looked at his feet, "I was just wondering why you did."

I smiled at him; he really wanted to know. I couldn't help but marvel at how my feelings toward him had changed.

"I defended you the first time," I began slowly. "Because I thought McGonagall was out of line." I didn't get the chance to continue because Scorpius interrupted me, "But you never made a secret of the fact that you didn't like me. Even earlier that day."

"You're not your dad, Scorpius. Though you two do look scarily alike. But still, whatever mistakes he made in the past are not your problem and it's really not fair that you have to deal with stuff like that. People expect me to be just as great as my parents and I hate it, but to have people look at you and expect you to be evil or something is just wrong." I lapsed into silence and Scorpius looked at me in a way that I've never been looked at before.

"As for the second time," I began again, ignoring the slight fluttering in my stomach that his gaze had left. "You are a way better guy than Nott, who the bloody well cares that you're not in Slytherin, and your dad didn't seem like a loser to me."

He smiled, "Thanks, Rose."

"No problem." I grinned back.

"Wait. Come here," I said. "You've got blood all over the side of your face."

He came closer to me and I examined the cut on his jaw. I conjured a handkerchief and gently wiped away the blood and cleaned the cut. Mind you, this act involved holding his face in one hand and standing on my tip toes to get as close to it as I could so I could clean it. I ignored the butterflies and my slight dizziness and lightheadedness. It means nothing at all.

"Now," I said. "Do you want a scar or not because I have met guys who consider them manly."

"What and damage my good looks?" he replied in mock outrage.

"Conceited," I muttered but healed it anyways.

"Thanks, Rose," he whispered again.

"No problem," I repeated. It was then that it must have hit him how close we were to each other, barely two inches apart. We both jumped back hurriedly.

"Night" I muttered, feeling the blood rush to my face. "G'night, Rose," he said quietly.

I fell onto my bed a few minutes later and forced myself to come to terms with the fact that I might possibly just have a _teensy_ crush on Scorpius Malfoy.

Oh, sweet Merlin…

**A/N So, what's up? I'm hoping you guys are enjoying this story. If so, tell me so in a review, I'd really like to know. Reviews and chocolate are love :D****  
**


	6. Denial

**A/N Real quick, um for some reason, on the last chapter I wrote Chapter 7 at the top. I do not why. It was chapter 5. This is chapter 6 and chapter 7 will some in the future. Honestly. If I didn't think I was insane before…  
**  
Denial

I spent the last few weeks leading up to Christmas in complete denial of what I was feeling.

A crush on Scorpius Malfoy? Me? Nah.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of that non-existent crush were hard to ignore. Excessive staring at said person, butterflies in stomach, tingling sensation where we touch; the works.

This was so unfair! I had just become friends with the guy! Why did he have to be suddenly so, so appealing? Attractive? So freakin' _perfect_? He had suddenly become this sweet, handsome, and if I do say, protective guy and I can't handle it!

Sorry. Rant over with. I've got some Slytherin butt to kick in Quidditch now. Yeah, I have mood swings.

Anyway, I met up with Scorpius (Aargh! Stupid butterflies.) and we headed down to the pitch ready to total the Slytherins.

I rose sharply into the air when the whistle was blown. Scorpius darted off, no doubt in search of the Snitch. I snatched the Quaffle out of the air and raced for the Slytherin goal posts, the wind whistling through my hair. Dimly, I heard Minnie urging me on, but suddenly a bludger came out of nowhere and I had to flip over on my broom to avoid it. Unfortunately, I lost the Quaffle in the process. Flint caught it and sped down the pitch. I swore under my breath.

He took a shot at our goal, but there is a reason Annie's our Keeper. She caught the Quaffle neatly and tossed it to Leslie. Now it was Flint's turn to swear and he did not do it as quietly as I did, I might add.

I was proud to see Leslie use some of the moves I had taught her. She made it down to the Slytherin end and scored. Glad to see I hadn't suffered needlessly. Our lessons had not been fun, in my opinion. All she did was talk about Scorpius. How wonderful and hot he was and babbling about ways to get him to ask her out. This drove my temper to the max recently because of my, er…never mind. This denial thing isn't working out too well.

Anywho, back to the game. It was ferocious. Slytherin scored on us, and then we scored twice. I zipped around the pitch scoring as much as I could and trying not to be killed any bludgers. Nasty buggers. Katie had the Quaffle and I raced in front of her and she passed it to me. I shot towards the Slytherin goal posts, but then suddenly, I was on a crash course with a bludger. I swerved out of the way just in time…to be caught full in the face by the second bludger.

I felt my nose break. Not a pleasant sensation. Blood poured down the front of my robes. It hurt like hell. Somehow, I had managed to hold onto the Quaffle though. But the pain distracted me and I dropped several feet before I even realized it.

Seething, I rose back up higher. I did_not_ like being set up. Those idiot beaters must have realized that I would swerve when the first bludger came at me (no, duh. I'm just gonna _sit_ there) and fly straight into the path of the second bludger if they timed it right. Though I couldn't quite grasp the fact that those two thickheads were able to strategize like that. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Goyle was half troll.

I was not happy with Thing One and Thing Two, but I figured the best way to get back at them was to kick their butts from here to next week. So we worked on that.

We scored again and again and the Slytherins were getting seriously ticked off.

They started to tactics they usually save for Gryffindor: grabbing on to the tail end of an opposing broomstick, chucking beater's bats at unsuspecting players, ramming into folks at, like, 100 mph, etc,etc. That kinda thing. I'll just say that pretty soon I wasn't the only one bleeding.

I think that Madam Chang tried to get us to time out a few times, probably because of the few injuries. But there was nothing for it. The game was so vicious and there was no stopping it. Though I rather wish there was. My nose was starting to throb.

But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Scorpius and the Slytherin Seeker, Gregor, dive. They had both spotted the Snitch.

Scorpius was clearly the better flyer, but the Slyhterins were angry and tired and after all that, they did not want to lose.

And I mean really, really, _really_ did not want to lose. I love Quidditch and I want to win as much as the next guy, but what the Slytherins did now…well, it was ridiculous.

It was like every player on the Slytherin Quidditch team was trying to hinder Scorpius in some way. He had pulled ahead of Gregor and was now chasing the Snitch across the pitch. Flint and Nott, both dive bombed him apparently not caring that they would obviously injure themselves as well. Ding dongs. Scorpius dodged both of them and somehow managed not to lose the Snitch. I'm telling you, he's brilliant.

Elliot Parken, their Keeper, flew right in front of him, but Scorpius just flew over him and kept on going. For some reason, during all these distractions, the Snitch hadn't tried to disappear once. It just continued to lead Scorpius on this merry chase.

Madam Chang was screaming herself hoarse now. Goyle and Jugson had hurled their beaters bats at Scorpius. The sharp metal rim of the handle slashed his side. I thought I saw blood.

Then he dove sharply. When he pulled up a few feet from the ground, he held the struggling Snitch in his hand. And just like that, the game was over. The crowd erupted with cheers. My team mates grinned broadly at each other and flew towards Scorpius to congratulate him and celebrate.

Two green blurs shot past us and straight into Scorpius. WHAM. All three of them hit the ground with a nasty thud.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid Slytherins. Can't they lose with dignity once? No. They just have to go and do something moronic that usually results in bodily harm,_ I thought heatedly.

I jumped off my broom before I had completely touched down and raced to where Goyle and Nott (I should've known) were picking themselves up off the ground. They didn't appear to be that hurt as they were wearing their signature smirks as they sauntered away.

Scorpius struggled to his feet, holding his left arm awkwardly. He swayed a little and shook his head, trying to clear it.

"Are you alright?" I demanded, concerned.

'Yeah," he gasped, "Dislocated my shoulder when we hit the ground. Those guys are _heavy_." He winced and my stomach turned over. I absolutely _hat_e dislocated joints. It is so disgusting; your bone literally pops out of its socket. Eww. I am such a girl.

Al appeared next to Scorpius. "Nice catch, mate." Scorpius managed to grin at his friend. "I know," he replied cheekily, before wincing in pain again. "I would have caught it faster of course," Al continued. Scorpius snorted, "Suuure." While they bickered, Al inched closer to Scorpius and with a sharp upward jab and a pop (sickening, in my opinion) Scorpius' shoulder was _re_ located.

He gave a grunt of pain, but then smiled as he slowly moved his newly located arm. Al grinned, "And the TV said 'Don't try this at home'."

Scorpius paled. "You mean that what you just did right now, you saw on _muggle television_? And just thought to try it on _me_? Randomly, just like that?"

Al's only response was to raise his eyebrows at his best mate, as if to say, "Don't you trust me?"

We all know the answer to _that_. But I seriously doubt that Al would try something that he'd only seen done on TV on his best mate. But, whatever, the fact remains that Scorpius' arm was fine again.

Now Scorpius seemed to catch sight of my nose and notice that my face was bloody. "Rose, you're hurt too," he said, sounding concerned.

I shrugged dismissively. To be honest, after so many years of Quidditch injuries, I'm pretty good at ignoring pain. "It's nothing. Just a broken nose. Madam Patil will fix it in a cinch."

I caught sight of Madam Chang yelling at the whole Slytherin team, promising them at least a week's worth detention, and totally making my day. But then she saw us, and hurried over. I caught a glimpse of Lily being told off by Professor Longbottom for bewitching a large Slytherin banner to follow its owners around repeatedly whacking them upside the head before Madam Chang reached us.

"Mr. Malfoy and Miss Weasley, go up to the Hospital Wing. No," She said sharply as Katie opened her mouth, "celebrations will wait until after the injured members of your team have been looked over. Particularly you, Malfoy, that cut needs attention."

I looked at Scorpius' side, where the beater's bat had hit him. His robes were torn and crusty with drying blood. For once in my life, I didn't even argue. I grabbed Scorpius' arm and marched him toward the castle. "Why didn't you tell me you were cut?" I demanded. "We're going to Madam Patil now"

"Yes, mum," he muttered. I woulda whacked him but he already had a sizable lump on his head so I didn't bother. There were already several Quidditch players already in the Hospital Wing and Madam Patil was looking harried.

Scorpius and I were last; everyone else had left. Madam Patil fixed me up in no time, but Scorpius took a little longer. She patched up his bruises and smaller cuts quickly, but took longer to heal the gash in his side. It wasn't deep, but she was just being careful.

A student lying in a bed farther down from us started groaning and Madam Patil straightened quickly, she looked harried again. "Here, dear," she said to Scorpius and pressed a small tube into his hand. "This is some anti-scarring cream. I would perform a spell myself but-" she broke off as the student groaned again.

"Don't worry about it," Scorpius said quickly.

Shooting glances at the groaning kid we walked quickly to the door. Once outside, we almost sprinted away from there. Both of us were eager to get to the celebrations that were sure to be taking place in the Ravenclaw Common Room.

When we entered, we were attacked. Both Katie and Amy almost tackled Scorpius with their very exuberant hugs, while Leslie bounced around telling him how great he was. I was surrounded by extremely psyched Ravenclaws. Charlie Boot clapped me on the shoulder enthusiastically and someone shoved a glass of pumpkin juice into my hand. Everyone was celebrating our impressive victory.

Even Al. I caught sight of him about ten minutes after we had gotten there. I pushed my way over to him.

"How did you get in here?" I asked incredulously. Al's my cousin and I love him, but he is a _Gryffindor_ and this is a _Ravenclaw_party, celebrating a _Ravenclaw_ victory, in the _Ravenclaw_ common room.

"Amy invited me," he replied, a slight smirk on his face. I stared at him. Just then, Amy came up and took Al's hand.

"Oh, hey Rose." She said. I continued to stare.

"When did this happen?" I managed to get out.

'Umm, during the Quidditch game?" Amy said with dreamy smile on her face.

"Oh. Well." What can I say? I have a way with words.

As if to assure me that what I was hearing really was true, Al leaned down and kissed Amy. My cousin finally got up the courage and asked one of my best friends out. Though the timing did take me a little by surprise. Just then, Scorpius appeared at my elbow. "Whoa," he said catching sight of Amy and Al locking lips. "Did I miss something?"

"Yeah. And apparently so have I." I said, still a little shell shocked. I mean, it's not like I didn't see this coming, I just didn't see it coming _now_. But anyway, Scorpius just raised one of those blonde eyebrows at me and I shrugged. Glad Amy's love life is working out. That makes a grand total of one of us. But, I digress.

With all that drama, it is needless to say that it was quite some time before Scorpius and I returned to our common room. I was utterly exhausted. When I start seeing little pink ponies in front of my eyes, it is way time for me to go to bed.

I don't even like ponies. Or pink. Clashes horribly with my hair.

After stumbling through the portrait hole, ignoring Sir Barking-mad-agon (honestly, what in the name of Merlin does _scurvey dog_ mean?) I went into my room and put my pajamas on, with the full intention of falling into my bed and into la la land.

But, being my annoying, organized self, I just couldn't do that. I had left some books that I wanted to bring with me over break out in the common room. Now break was just a few days away and I just had to get those books before I would not be able to fall asleep. I really annoy myself sometimes.

I came out into the common room, yawning, and was met with an amusing sight. Scorpius was sitting on the couch by the fireplace, trying to put on that anti-scarring cream Madam Patil had given him on his cut.

And failing. He had taken off his shirt, but could just not reach the little bugger. Not for lack of trying of course. He was swearing (using some words I actually hadn't heard before; I filed them away for future use) and did not look happy.

Swallowing a laugh, I quietly went over and sat down next to him. I took the cream out of his hand.

"Turn around, moron," I said.

What? You were expecting something sweeter? Come on, you know me.

He raised his eyebrows his eyebrows at me and I sighed. "Fine. You're not a moron." There. That was sweet. "But turn around; I'll put this on for you. Not that it wasn't fun watching you struggle," I added, grinning. He glared at me, but obliged.

I dabbed some cream onto my finger. My hands were shaking. I guess it hit me what I had volunteered to do. The situation I was in. I hate it when I get this way around him. My breath caught as I moved closer to him. He just looked so dang good without a shirt on. I did my best to push those feelings aside as I rubbed the cream on the white line that snaked its way down Scorpius' side. Feeling his body, hardened by long hours of Quidditch, under my fingers, made my mind go haywire, and I thought…I'm not even going to tell you what I thought.

Come on, I'm a teenage girl and he's a _very_ attractive teenage boy. Cut me some slack here, folks!

I finished with the cream and stood up _very_ quickly. Scorpius did too. I thought I might be blushing. I really needed to get out of here and fast. I moved to my room and slipped on those books I had originally come out here to get. I had so responsibly left them on the floor. I felt myself start to fall backwards but then Scorpius caught my arm and one hand came to my waist to steady me.

Let's review this situation now, shall we? Me and Scorpius. Him in pajama pants and no shirt. Me in short shorts and a tank top. His hand on my arm and my waist. If I wasn't blushing before, I sure was now.

He let me go. "Thanks," I mumbled, "'Nite."

"Good night, Rose," I coulda sworn his voice sounded slightly uneven. I practically dove for my room.

Well, I wasn't tired anymore, funny enough. I lay on my bed for hours, feeling confused, scared, and overwhelmed by my feelings for Scorpius. I needed some time away from him. I needed to think and try to make some sense out of my totally screwed up life and wacked feelings.

For once, I was actually _looking forward_ to a Weasley style Christmas.

Now I know I've lost it. It's official.

~~

The Hogwarts Express took all the students that were going home for break back to Platform 9 ¾.

I sat in a compartment with Amy, Al, who just couldn't get enough of Amy lately, Katie, Scorpius, Charlie Boot, and Jack Goldstein, both of whom were friends of Scorpius and now mine. Well, they're beaters on the Quidditch team, so I knew them before, but now they're more of friends. Charlie's funny and sarcastic and Jack's outgoing and friendly. They're great guys.

I talked animatedly with them and Amy, Al, and Katie, Scorpius on the other hand, I was trying to ignore. When he tried to engage me in conversation, I would respond in as few words as possible and get out of it as soon as possible. He looked disappointed and downhearted by this, and I did feel bad, but to be honest, I got really weird around him now. My breath catches, I feel my cheeks heat up, and there are enough butterflies in my stomach to fill a freakin' pavilion.

I'm becoming slightly worried that I may be suffering from a fairly common ailment: love. To be more precise: falling in love. I might have to consider the possibility that I am falling, or already have fallen, in love with Scorpius.

Which is _so_ not a good thing.

I bet there are a bunch of you folks out there who are disgusted with me right now, but think about it for a minute. I'd like to see you tell _Ron Weasley_, who happens to be your _father_, that you've fallen in love with _Scorpius Malfoy_, the son of his, like, worst enemy. Yeah, no, not good at all.

But once all of us were on the Platform and I was about to go looking for my mum, I couldn't leave Scorpius looking so down. He might get some crazy idea to date some other girl while we were on break and that would not do. Of that I am sure.

So after I was done with the rest of my good-byes, I smiled up at Scorpius and hugged him hard.

He was surprised at first, but then his arms came around me, and he hugged me back. It felt so good. When we broke apart, I gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and whispered in his ear, "Write to me."

And, because I was feeling bold, I winked at him as I walked away. He smirked and then gave me his most charming smile, the one that makes most girls' knees go week. I giggled and turned around to see my Aunt Ginny regarding me with eyebrows raised. Great.

"Hey, Aunt Ginny. Like my new friend?" I asked her in my most endearing voice. She shot me a your-dad-is-going-to-kill-you look. That's family support for you. But actually Aunt Ginny is really great. Whenever I feel like I can't talk to my mom about something, I always go to her. I knew that when I finally brought up Scorpius with my dad (which I'm in no hurry to do. I wonder why?) she'll take my side.

I was just finished giving Aunt Ginny a hug, when my mom appeared and gave me a stifling hug.

"Oh Rose, I'm so glad to see. But you're okay? Nothing else has happened?" Scorpius comes to mind, but I'm not going there right now.

My mom scrutinized me,taking in my new bruises from Quidditch. She doesn't approve of the game. Then Hugo came up to us and it was his turn to be engulfed in a hug and pelted with concerned question.

I love my mom, but she just worries so much. It's like she thinks the crazy stuff that happened to her when she was at school will happen to us. Though the whole werewolf thing is coming kinda close. She's freaked out more than normal because of that.

Mom kept pestering us with endless questions until I finally exasperatly told her I would tell her everything when we got home.

"Well, unfortunetly, that isn't going to happen,Rose, because we're not going r. We're going straight to the Burrow. We're spending Christmas there anyway, so we'll just be there a couple extra days." Mum informed us.

Hugo whooped and I grinned. I absolutely loved staying at the burrow. Especially when it isn't chock full of insane Weasleys.

"Oh, and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny will be coming too," Mum added.

This just kept getting better and better. I love my cousins and I haven't seen James in ages. He's like a big brother to me. Just as annoying and just as protective. I probably won't mention Scorpius to him either, now that I think about it.

We arrived at the Burrow within seconds. I disapperated and Hugo did side-along with my mum. As soon as we started up towards the house, my grandma rushed out to meet us. I swear she has a grand kids alarm, an internal sensor or something.

Anyway, Grandma ushered us all inside and then proceeded to bustle around the kitchen making tea and cookies and chatting merrily away.

It was very relaxing actually.

Soon, Aunt Ginny arrived with Al and Lily. James would arrive later; he was training to be a curse-breaker for Gringotts like Uncle Bill.

First words out of my mouth to Al were, "Wanna play some Quiddtitch?"

His eyes lit up, "Let's go." Guys.

We hurried outside to the hold broomshed 'cause neither of us felt like retrieving our own brooms.

"Your mom saw me with Scorpius," I informed him.

"And what were you doing with Scorpius, Rosie? Were you being a bad girl?"

"Don't patronize me and of course I wasn't it. It's not like that." I replied a little defensively.

"Well, if your worried about Mum telling Uncle Ron, don't," he said. "Because she won't. She knows how he gets. Anyway, she and Dad already know about me and Scorpius being practically best mates. She thought it was great."

He looked at me, wait for it_, knowingly_. I wanted to kill him. "So if you and Scorpius become…more than friends, you can count on her approval."

"That is _not_ going to happen. I don't even find him attractive that way." He and I both knew I was lying through my teeth. That's the thing about Al, he knows me to well. And it was bloody annoying sometimes.

"Are we going to play Quidditch or just sit here all day?" I asked sarcastically. Without waiting for an answer I kicked off the ground, knowing that with Quidditch to distract him Al would forget about me and Scorpius. For now.

A little over an hour later, we stumbled back into the kitchen. It had started to snow and was freezing. Grandma pushed steaming mugs of coco into our hands and I sighed contentedly. My shivers and the cold were pushed away.

If only my love life could be so easily remedied by a mug of coco. But then again, what fun would there be in that?

**A/N Review? Please?**


	7. Christmas Time

Chapter 7

Traditionally, my whole extended family arrives on Christmas Eve. We do some general catching up and getting up to date on what everyone's been up to. Then we all spend the night.

Yeah, it's a little cramped.

We usually set up two tents in the backyard and the kids (yes, I'm still considered a kid) have a nice old-fashioned camp out while the adults get all cozy inside.  
Whoever said life was fair?

It's really not that bad though. I mean the tents aren't like _Muggle_ tents or anything. They're pretty wicked actually.

There's not going to be as much of us sleeping outside this year, however. Dominique and Louis (Uncle Bill's and Aunt Fluer's children) will be inside. Dominique thinks she's too good for sleeping outside in a tent 'cause she's graduated from Beauxbatons. She's always been so high and mighty though. We never really got along. Louis just kept complaining about sleeping in a tent, God forbid, that it was agreed he could sleep inside. If he could find any room.

I swear that sissy French school has made him go soft.

Grace and Kelli (Uncle Percy's children) haven't slept out with us in ages. They're, like, ancient, along with Victoire. She just got married to Teddy. Those two are so adorable. All three of those girls are awesome, though.

Unfortunately, Fred and James will still be joining us this year even though they graduated from Hogwarts last year. They say that they couldn't stand to share a room with Loius and all his pompoushiness. I told them 'pompoushiness' isn't a word. They told me to shut up. How rude.

And then there's Roxanne. I absolutely love Roxanne. She's Fred older sister and is two years out of Hogwarts, but she'll still be bunking with us because she's just awesome that way. She's like a big sister to Lily and I. And she gives great guy advice.  
Which I need a heck of a lot of, as you already know.

She should be arriving soon, actually. Fred is still living with his parents until he can get a flat of his own and they arrived a few hours ago.

Yeah, it's Christmas Eve and my crazy family is arriving.

Uncle Percy and Aunt Andrea are here along with Uncle Charlie. So are Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, Dominique and Louis. Grace and Kelli arrived not long ago from St, Mungo's, where they are training to be healers.

I was really glad to see them. Grace and Kelli have light red hair and are totally identical, nearly impossible to tell apart.

"Hi, Grace," I said, fervently hoping that I was indeed greeting Grace.  
"I'm Kelli," said Kelli, whom I thought was Grace. Oops.

I groaned. "One of these days I'm going to get it right." I promised.

"Sure you are, Rose," Grace said and winked at me as she and her sister wandered off to find their parents

I stood grinning broadly as I looked around at my gathered family:

My mom and dad arguing about some trivial thing as Uncle Harry watched on amused(this is a common occurrence).

Aunt Ginny and Aunt Fleur helping Grandma in the kitchen (Now _that_ doesn't happen a lot.)

Grandpa talking enthusiastically to Hugo about some crazy Muggle contraption(And he still calls it a fellytone).

Aunt Andrea listening patiently to Uncle Percy as he went on and on about his oh so important job at the Ministry(God knows what he actually does. I don't stay awake long enough to hear.)

Al listening intently as Uncle Charlie described his many close encounters with dragons in Romania with Uncle Bill making snide comments here and there.  
Dominique freaking out over a broken nail (Honestly, that girl…)

Fred and James making fun of Louis behind his back while he talked to Grace and Kelli who were struggling not to laugh.( And yet the guy doesn't notice a thing.)

Aunt Angelina whacking Uncle George upside the head when he applauded Lily after she told him animatedly about the pranks she played this year and the many she still had planned(That man will _never_ grow up. I'm starting to have my doubts about Lily too.)

I shook my head, but this weird warm feeling filled me up inside. This was my family and I loved them, no matter how mental they are. Being with them even made me forget about Scorpius

Oh, damn, so much for that. Immediately his face popped into my head. His stormy gray eyes staring intently into mine. Now that I started, I couldn't stop thinking about him. And everything I loved about him. The way he smiled, the sweet way he comforted me, the way he looked when he just got up in the morning, tousle-haired and sleepy eyed. Even the bloody way he plays Quidditch

"Aaargh!" I ground my knuckles into the side on my head. I was supposed to not be worrying about Scorpius here! I sighed deeply, my many confused emotions swirling around inside me again.

"Having problems, cuz?" a voice said from the doorway behind me.

"Roxanne!" I shrieked and leapt forward to hug my cousin. Then I pulled away and said, pretending to be affronted, "So you think I have problems, do you?"

"Honey," Roxanne laughed, "Generally, grounding knuckles into one's head and growling indicate some sort of problem. In your case, I'd say something pertaining to guys or education."

"That'd be guys," I said in a resigned tone.

At that moment Victoire and Teddy appeared in the door behind Roxanne. "Guys?" Victoire asked. "Who?" Teddy mouthed at me. But I just grinned at him and shook my head. There is no short supply of over protective males in this family.

Roxanne shot me a 'we'll talk later' look. I glanced and Victoire and she thankfully read my unspoken message and dropped the subject. To avoid having to endure Teddy's questions, I plunged into a conversation about Quidditch, not really knowing what I was getting myself into

"Boys and Quidditch." I should have known. How two people could talk about the same thing for that long, I have no idea. Thankfully, the conversation had to be halted by Aunt Fluer announcing that "Eet ees time for deener"

The regular chaos ensued. There was, like, thirty people. But it wasn't as bad as it will be tomorrow. Tonight we just grab our food and find a place to sit. Tomorrow is the whole sit down family dinner fiasco. Yeah.

Several hours and a lot less food later, I found myself looking for a way to escape. Don't get me wrong, I love my family. But I just wanted some breathing room.

I was hoping to sneak out to my tent. I knew how early I would be up tomorrow. You'd think they were five the way Lily and Hugo reacted to presents. Though to be fair, James and Fred aren't much better. Nor am I for that matter. Neither is Uncle George. Yes, it's very sad.

I actually managed to escape this time. Normally, I am assaulted by relatives wanting to talk to me about this or that. This time, however, I made it out to the tent. It's quite huge inside. One side for the girls, the other for the boys. Since I was the first one in there, I grabbed the top bunk. Take that Lil. She always gets the top bunk. Hey, I'm allowed to be immature sometimes, aren't I?

I lay there for a while, reading and relishing the general lack of chaos. Then Roxanne and Lily entered, singing 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs' at the top of their lungs.  
I covered my ears and mock glared at them, "Shut it guys. You have absolutely no musical talent what so ever."

Lily scoffed, "And you do?"

I threw a pillow at her.

"Children, children," Roxanne held up her hands. "Let us act like mature young women," she said, before whipping pillows at the both of us. We engaged in a ferocious pillow fight before collapsing to the ground, laughing

After we had regained control over ourselves and were seated comfortably, Roxanne looked at me and asked, "Now, what kind of guy problems are you having, Rose?"

I sighed, "A major crush on someone," Yes I admitted it. Happy? "Someone who might just like me back and if my dad finds out he will hit the ceiling."

I said it. It was finally out. Thank Merlin.

Roxanne smiled, "Dads are never going to be okay when their baby girl starts getting with guys. My dad informed me that I wasn't allowed to date until I was thirty-five."  
Lily and I laughed. Don't we know it. All three of us are the only girls in our families and boy, are our dads over protective.

"But seriously, your dad was like this with the last guy you dated. Why should he freak out more than usual with this one?"

I had dated someone at the end of my fifth year and my dad had been awful, but he got over it.

"He got over the last one." Roxanne pressed.

"Somehow, I don't think that'll be the case with this one." I said and Lily nodded in fervent agreement. She, of course, had figured it out.

Roxanne looked curious and confused now. "Who is it?" she asked.

I ran my hand through my hair and looked at the ground. "Scorpius Malfoy."

Roxanne's expression cleared. "Aaah, that's not good."

No, duh.  
Roxanne and I stared at each other for a moment. Then she snorted.

Yeah, I know. Very lady-like.

Roxanne let out a small giggle, and then started laughing uncontrollably. I didn't get what was going on. Had she finally lost it (which was possible)? Was she laughing at my predicament? 'Cause that is _so_not funny. Not at all.

I narrowed my eyes. Lily was looking confused. Roxanne wiped her streaming eyes and choked out, "I'm sorry, Rose, but it's just so funny. You have the worst luck sometimes."

"That I do," I agreed glumly. But I guess it was kinda funny when you thought about it. A Weasley falling for a Malfoy. It's like freakin' Romeo and Juliet (though I am not suicidal, thank you very much). Two families who hate each other. Their kids fall in love. Ironic.

But here I go again. Acting as if I know that Scorpius likes me too. Which I don't. And it's really starting to get on my nerves.

"What am I going to do?" I asked Roxanne with a slight hint of desperation in my voice. Every way I could see it, I was totally screwed.

"Nothing," she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. For the record, it isn't. The most mental maybe.

"What?" I squeaked. I come to her for advice, tell her probably my biggest secret and she tells me to do_nothing_?

"What do you like about him?" she asked calmly. "Is he sweet, attractive, can you talk to him?"

"Yeah. He's all those things," I replied with a slight smile. "I can tell him anything and he actually listens. He's funny and fun to be around. It's crazy, actually enjoying being around a guy so much."

Roxanne and Lily laughed. It was true though. I mean, take James and Fred for example. Those two nut jobs can't take _anything_ seriously.

"But seriously, Rose, my advice is to do nothing. Let things play out. Let fate have a chance. Don't not be with someone who makes you happy because you're afraid of what your family will think."

"They'd get over it," I said quietly. "Everyone else would accept it. But my dad…" I didn't need to finish my sentence.

"Rose," Roxanne said gently. "Your dad loves you and you know he always will, no matter who you date."

I bit back a retort of 'Not if he's a Malfoy'. But still, her words were comforting.

Now if I only knew if Scorpius felt the same way too. Aargh.

That thought was still whirling around in my head when I fell asleep hours later after finally convincing the boys to shut the hell up and go to sleep.

"Rose!" Lily shrieked at that oh so early hour I had predicted I would be rudely awakened at. "Wake up. We've got presents! And you've got something in a fancy-shmancy box. It looks expensive!" she practically sang out.

"Lily Luna Potter!" it was my turn to shriek. "Don't you dare touch my presents!" I was awake in a second and ready to strangle my cousin.

"Come on then. The boys are coming in a second." She sat down in a purple arm chair, her presents at her feet.

"Good morning, campers," Fred said cheerily as he pushed his way into our part of the tent along with James, Al, and Hugo.

After the boys had settled themselves into various chairs and the floor, James said brightly, "Right. So how are we going to open them this year?"

Roxanne rolled her eyes. "Like we always do, idiot," she said exasperatedly. "We each take turns opening one until they're all gone."

"That takes forever," Hugo whined. And I thought he was fifteen, not five.  
"We could just have a free for all," James suggested excitedly. Fred nodded enthusiastically.

"That would be chaos," Lily objected. Smart girl.  
"Exactly," James and Fred chorused, grinning, earning them another eye roll from Roxanne.

"If the boys want to rip into their presents like animals, let them," I suggested. "But while the rest of us more civilized beings open ours at a normal pace, they will have to wait for us to finish," I added, smiling slightly as I realized exactly how this was going to play out.

"Fine!" the boys agreed before…ripping into their presents like animals.

Roxanne, Lily and I shared a look. All of us knew how hard it would be for our brothers to sit still after they were done with their presents. They would want to go off and play Quidditch or have hot coco inside, or bother the adults. Not sit around and watch their darling sisters slowly, and I stress slowly, open their own presents. This would be good.

I started opening my first present, the one from my parents. I couldn't help but gasp when I saw what it was. A gorgeous black halter dress that I had been eyeing in a Muggle shop for weeks. It was short and had silver flowers showing under a slit in the black fabric. I loved it. But it hadn't been cheap and I had given up hope of ever getting it. I couldn't believe my mom and dad had bought it for me. Roxanne and Lily oohed and aahed over it for a moment while Lily expressed wonder at when I would get to wear it. I didn't know that and I didn't care. It was lovely.

"Done!" James announced triumphantly. I eyed him from above the present Katie had sent me. It was my third.

"Well. You better get comfortable," Roxanne said cheerfully. "We're just getting started."

The four boys groaned in unison while Roxanne, Lily and I grinned broadly.

"Throwing paper balls at me is not going to make me go any faster," I said calmly as the umpteenth ball hit me on the head.

I slowly reached for my last present (Lily and Roxanne had just finished) when no less than 30 paper balls bombarded me.

"Alright! Alright!" I yelled, snatching up the velvet box that I had saved for last. I had already opened gifts from my parents, Hugo, my cousins, my aunts and uncles, and Teddy. I didn't know who else was left.

The box had a red ribbon tied around it and a note tied under it. I unfolded the note and it ought of him before. I read the note:

_Rose,__  
__I was kind of at a loss as to what to get you. I considered, you know, a bright pink shirt 'cause I know how much you love pink…But seriously, let's face it, I don't really have that much experience shopping for girls, but I decided on this. Just don't wear it during Quidditch practice. Oh and don't even think about the price because it was nothing. And yes, I know you hate it when people say that but you're gonna have to live with it. You deserve more anyways. Owl me if you want to hang out before term resumes; I want to see you. But if you can't, I'll see you at Hogwarts.__  
__Love, Scorpius _I mouthed the words Love, Scorpius. Roxanne looked at me, a question on her lips, and I passed the note to her and Lily.

I quickly snapped open the box and, I couldn't help it, I gasped loudly and my hand flew to my mouth.

"I am going to kill him," I believe were my first thoughts, followed closely by "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…"

Inside lay the most beautiful bracelet and earrings I have ever seen. It was made of two interchanging bands of silver and blue with diamonds inlayed depending on where they crossed. _Real_ diamonds.

The earrings were silver swirled with blue, at the end hung a single glistening diamond.  
Now do you understand my need to kill him? He should never have spent so much money on me. I don't care how bloody rich his family is! I don't even want to know how much this cost.

I couldn't help but notice, though, how well they would go with my new dress, but that's beside the point.

"I'm going to venture a guess that he likes you too, Rose." Roxanne whispered, a look of complete shock on her face as she stared at my bracelet and earrings.

"I second that notion," Lily breathed.

"What? What is it?" Al demanded loudly. Oops, I'd forgotten the boys were here. He and the other guys crowded around me, trying to see.

"Merlin's beard," muttered James. My cousins and brothers may not be the brightest stars in the sky but they know something very, very, very expensive when they see it.

"Who would spend that much money on you?" Fred asked, looking as shocked as his sister.

Before I could stop him, Hugo snatched the note out of Lily's hand.

"That's mine," I screamed and lunged for him, grabbing at the note. But Hugo passed it to James, who scanned it, and then handed it to Fred and to Al. Silence fell as Al caught my eye. I looked away.

"Scorpius?" James asked. "As in Malfoy?

"Yes," I replied defiantly, breathing heavy. "He happens to be my friend."

"Who sends you expensive gifts and sweet notes. Quite the friend." Fred remarked.  
"Seems to be more than a friend." James stated.

Oh boy, I knew what was coming. The big brother act. Or big cousin act. Whatever.

"Look guys," I said, cutting them off. "Not right now, ok? You can lecture me later."

"Fine," they replied cheerily. I knew I was going to hear it eventually.

"You should wear them," Roxanne suggested innocently.

A rebellious feeling came over me. Why shouldn't I wear it? I didn't want to hide the fact that Scorpius and I are friends. And frankly, I shouldn't have to. If my dad wants to have a heart attack over it, fine. I'll visit him at St. Mungo's.

But right now, I was going to throw caution into the wind and wear my awesome new jewelry and if people asked me wear I got it from, I would tell them the truth. If they want to gather something more from that, that's their problem, not mine.

I slipped the bracelet on my wrist (it fit perfectly) and put on the earrings. We ordered the boys out and I pulled on a skirt and a black sweater. Arm in arm, Roxanne, Lily, and I strolled across the frozen yard, singing carols at the top of our lungs. I was light-hearted as I stepped lightly into the Burrow as I realized I wouldn't need to keep Scorpius a secret after all.

Oh, if I'd only known what I was getting myself into…

**A/N: I just wanted to say thanks to all those who have reviewed this story so far. You guys rock. Now go hit that shiny review button again :D **


	8. Falling

Chapter 8

Everything was fine at first. We got yelled at for our lack of vocal talent and then dispersed among our many relatives.

I ended up being cornered by my mother, who wanted to know everything how being Head Girl was going.

And I mean everything.

"The towels in the bathroom are blue, yes," I sighed.

"Ooo, they were red when I was there," Mom said as if this was something to actually get excited about.

"Probably because you were in Gryffindor," I muttered.

But I let my mom continue to question me. I know she missed me when I was away at Hogwarts. I explained to her that we were planning on having some kind of Renaissance Ball just to be different when we got back from break. 'We' meaning Scorpius and I.

Victoire entered the conversation just as I had said, "We're working on ideas, but Scorpius isn't much help. I mean, getting him to actually come to the meetings is hard enough."

Mum looked puzzled, "Scorpius?" she asked.

Crap. Despite my earlier good intentions, I had been avoiding Scorpius' name like the plague. What can I say? I'm a wimp. I knew there was a reason I wasn't in Gryffindor.

"Scorpius." Mom repeated, mulling the name over. "It sounds familiar. Do I know his family?"

"Uh yeah," I said, actually trying not to laugh. My mom does not have a good memory. At all.

My mom raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head, "Honestly Mum, what other bloke do you know who would name his son Scorpius? I'll give you a hint, his name is just as odd."

"Oh," she exclaimed as the realization hit her. "Draco's son."

"Ooooh" Victoire clucked sympathetically. "And I thought I had it bad, but a Malfoy…" She shook her head.

I gritted my teeth, "There is nothing wrong with being a Malfoy. Scorpius happens to be my friend." I said heatedly and then stormed outside. At that moment I didn't wonder why my family wasn't completely grateful to Scorpius for saving my life; it would hit me later.

But right now, I let the backdoor slam shut behind me as I breathed in the frigid December air.

I was getting really sick of my family talking about the Malfoys has if they were some kind of disease. It's just, just so…stupid! Is every Weasley, like, brought up to hate Malfoys? It shouldn't be that way. It's…stupid! See what a big vocabulary I have?

Maybe I'm just feeling this way because I fancy Scorpius, but I honestly believe that this grudge is ridiculous. I mean, the Weasleys haven't had a conflict with the Malfoys since the war. Things change. Times change. People change. Why can't our families just accept that?

"Rose, dear?" my mom approached me tentatively. "Is something wrong?"

I laughed at the stupidity of the question. No, I like getting worked up and making scene in front of my family. I do it for fun. That's what I wanted to say, but of course I didn't say it. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Well, if you want to ta—" she stopped abruptly. "Rose, what is that?" she pointed at my wrist and then gasped in shock. "Where on earth did you get it? It must have cost a fortune!"

"I'm sure it did," I sighed. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill him for buying it." I knew saying that was only getting myself into hotter water, but I just couldn't resist.

"Wait." And here it comes. "A boy gave you that very expensive piece of jewelry?" No, duh, I said him. But my mom was eyeing me seriously, letting me know that there was no chance in hell I was going to get out of giving her an explanation on this one.

I sighed. Soon the whole bloody world would know the story.  
"Yes, Mum. Scorpius sent it to me for Christmas," I replied, scuffing the toe of my shoe against the hardened snow.

Silence.

"Scorpius? But, now I remember, you use to mention him in your letters. How annoying, big-headed and arrogant he was and how you despised him and that the feeling was mutual! This same boy is now sending you gorgeous jewelry?" My dear mum looked frankly bewildered.

I opened my mouth to tell her what I had told Roxanne when a thought struck me. Why was everyone so shocked that Scorpius was kind to me now? Liked me? That we were friends? The guy saved my life, you'd think-.

Unless…

Oh no, I bet he did.

Now I really did have to kill him. He didn't tell McGonagall what really happened that night. How he had put himself between me and Greyback and shielded me from the falling ceiling. He was trying to be noble. No wonder my family still thought he would hate me. They didn't bloody well know that he saved me and risked his own life for mine! Well, my family was going to have to eat their words because they sure as hell are going to know now.

"Mum," I said, plastering a smile on my face, hiding my outrage. "Do you remember that night I was attacked at school?"

She looked aghast. "Of course I do! How could I possibly forget?" My mother doesn't know the meaning of a rhetorical question.

"Well," I continued, "I'm betting that when you went to talk to McGonagall, she told a story about me being alone, then getting attacked, and…I don't know, fighting my way out and then having some good Samaritan take me to the Hospital Wing. Am I right?" I knew I was, but again, my mother and rhetorical questions.

Mom blinked, "Why yes, that's what she told us, more or less. But you knew that." She was looking confused now.

"No, Mum, I didn't," I sighed. "Because that's not how it happened. What I do know is that Scorpius Malfoy attacked Greyback and scared him away and then got me out from that falling ceiling because I hurt too damn much to move!" I was almost shouting now. It wasn't my mom I was mad at, not really. I was just so frustrated.

My mom looked like she wanted to interrupt, but I was on a roll now and just kept going. "And after that, he carried me to the Hospital Wing and stayed with me all through the night until you got there. So no, I don't hate Scorpius and he doesn't hate me. I think it is a little natural for me to get slightly annoyed when my entire family is bashing on the guy who saved my life."

So many emotions were running through my head right then. I was re-living that night again; remembering every emotion I felt: the terror of Greyback after me, the pain of the Cruciatus Curse, the helplessness at the sight of the ceiling fall down on me, and finally, the safe, protected feeling I got when I was in Scorpius' arms. At that moment it hit me how much I wanted that feeling again; I couldn't believe the strength of it. I never knew what it felt like to want to be with someone so bad it hurt.

A silence had fallen after my little rant and now my mother broke it, "Rose, I…I didn't know," she whispered.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I know, Mom. I'm sorry for losing it like that. It's just, Scorpius…" I trailed off, not knowing how to proceed or even if I wanted to at all.

Thankfully, Mum took the matter out of my hands. "You're falling for him." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," I whispered and waited for the bomb to fall.

"Well, in that case, I'd keep the fact that Scorpius Malfoy saved your life a secret for a little while longer, especially from your father," she said briskly, then saw that I was about to cut in and went on quickly. "That way you have a card up your sleeve for when he finds out about the other piece of information you just gave me.

I stared at her; that was actually a good idea. What an excellent advantage I would have over my father. I shook my head at my mother, who had that mischievous look in her eyes that I normally associate with Aunt Ginny. Who woulda guessed?

"Aren't you gunna tell me to have fun?" I grinned wickedly. She raised an eyebrow at me and I laughed, "Come on, Mum. I'm a good girl."  
My mom laughed at that. "Sure, Rose. Now go inside and apologize to Victoire, you shouldn't have yelled at her."

I rolled my eyes at how quickly she resorted back to her motherliness. "Yes, Mum." I saluted her cheekily before running to get out of the cold.

"So like her father," I heard Mum mutter as she followed me at a slower pace.

Once inside, I walked up to Victoire and quickly apologized for snapping at her. She looked like she wanted to know what was up, but I really didn't want to go over that again so I just grinned and hurriedly walked away.

As I passed by my dad, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Uncle George and Uncle Bill, I heard part of a very interesting conversation.  
"Any word on Greyback?" Uncle Bill asked Uncle Harry. That was enough to get me to consider eavesdropping.

"Yeah, Harry, is Hogwarts still safe?" Uncle George said seriously. That sealed the deal for me. This would be important. I mean, when do you ever have Uncle George and serious in the same sentence? It was time to listen in. I partially concealed my self behind a huge potted plant. I hoped it wouldn't hurt me. Plants don't like me.

I tried to look like I was doing something, but soon I was too wrapped up in their conversation to care.

"Nothing much on him at all, "Uncle Harry sighed heavily, the man looked exhausted. As Head of the Auror Department, he was no doubt working over time to catch Greyback. "We have no idea how he got inside the school or if he'll be able to do it again."

"It's starting to sound like last time," Aunt Ginny lamented. This got me riveted. I had only heard bits and pieces of what had happened at Hogwarts, both when the Death Eaters broke in and the Battle. No one wanted to talk about it much.

"Not really," Uncle George argued. "There was already so much uncertainty and fear before Greyback and the others broke in last time. You didn't know who you could trust."

"It is different now," Uncle Harry agreed. "But it's been relatively safe for such a long time that people are complacent. They hear about a Death Eater escape and it doesn't cause the panic it once did. They think that because said Death Eater has no one to rally around, they're not as dangerous, but we know that's not true." Uncle Harry grew silent.

"Rose is very lucky," Uncle George said quietly. I started; they were going to talk about my attack. Clarification: what they thought was my attack.

Dad shuddered and put his head in his hands; Uncle Harry put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Dad looked up. "It was so close," he whispered, staring blankly ahead of him. "She might not have made it."  
"Well she did," Aunt Ginny said firmly. "It doesn't do any good to dwell on what might have happened." She shot Uncle George a death glare, rebuking him for bringing up such a touchy subject. However, now he was looking thoughtful.

"What doesn't make sense to me," he began slowly, "is how Rose managed to save herself. She's an excellent witch and definitely able to watch out for herself," Thank you. At least someone agrees with me. "But considering how severely injured she was, I don't understand how she was even conscious let alone able to drag herself out of all that rubble. And if the ceiling did collapse on her, I mean all of it; she would have most definitely been killed."

"What do you think happened then?" Aunt Ginny questioned. "That someone else was there with Rose?"

Bingo, folks.

'Well, it would make more sense," Uncle George stated.

"But why wouldn't McGonagall have told us?"

"I don't know, Ginny. Something just feels off.

I wanted to stay and listen to more, but alas, I was thwarted by Lily, who enlisted my help in pranking Louis.

The rest of the day passed with much talking, pranking, and general messing around. By the time four o'clock rolled around, everyone was seated at our huge outdoor table. It was chaos, as usual. I lost count of how many things spilled, broke or tipped over.

There was a memorable moment when James, who was walking around the table with a bowl of gravy, tripped and slammed into Lily's chair. She fell into her plate and the gravy flew across the table to land with a thud on Uncle Percy's head. Face down of course. I must say he looks rather good with his hair brown.

Well, we made it to dessert without many injuries and as I surveyed the mountains of treats around me, I almost sighed in bliss. Coffee had been poured and even some Firewhiskey brought out. Sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. This was going to get fun.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Go figure. I was about to grab a Treacle Tart when a large lion patronus appeared. It opened its mouth and began to speak in Dean Thomas' voice. "I'm sorry, Harry, to bother you, but this is an emergency. This should be confidential but there was no time. Greyback's been sighted: he's raiding Malfoy Manor."

**Dun dun duuuuuuun**


	9. About Time

Uncle Harry leapt to his feet. "Ron, now." He snapped. Dad was grumbling, "Christmas dinner ruined because of Malfoy." Aunt Ginny looked at him in disgust, but Uncle Harry simply grabbed Dad's arm and turned on the spot.

As soon as they were gone, everyone started talking at once. Concerned and confused looks were on all faces, but I barely noticed. My eyes locked with Al's and we both stood up at the same time.

"Rose, where are you going?" my mom called.

"Inside," I replied in a voice that I barely recognized as my own. "I'm not hungry." Then Al grabbed my arm and steered me inside. None of us said anything until we were in an empty bedroom and I locked the door.

I could hear the desperation in my voice when I asked, "What the hell happened?"

My cousin ran a hand through his untidy black hair, "I've no idea. I don't understand why Greyback would attack the Malfoys. I thought he was supposed to be after us."

I began to pace the room, trying to hide my increasing worry. "So did I," I said. "But we have no idea what's going on over there. Or if Scorpius is okay." There. I finally voiced my fear. My fear that in the attack, something had happened to Scorpius. The fact that I didn't know was killing me.

Al sat down on the bed and I lowered myself next to him. "I'm sure he's fine," Al said, but he sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself as much as me.

"I should have told him," I whispered. With the possibility of Scorpius being hurt or even killed looming before me, the weight of everything unsaid between us pressed heavily on my mind. I should have told him how I felt about him.

"Oh Rose," was all Al said; without even needing to ask, he knew exactly what I meant. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I leaned into him. My next words were muffled by his jacket, "I should have told him a long time ago."

I don't know how long I sat there with Al. What I do know is that it was way too long and when I heard two distinct pops from below I practically killed myself sprinting down the stairs. I almost ran into Dad.

"What's going on," I asked breathlessly. "What happened? Are they okay? Was anyone hurt?"

Uncle Harry passed a hand over his eyes, and that's when I noticed a fresh, bleeding cut on his forehead. Glancing at my father, I realized that he too bore signs of a battle. My heart thudded painfully in my chest as I waited for answers. I had to know if anything had happened to Scorpius. For a moment, I thought about how this must look to my dad. Me nearly having a heart attack because I don't know if the Malfoys are all right. Then I realized that I didn't freakin' care what he thought anymore.

Aunt Ginny, Mom, and the rest of the crew appeared behind Al and I just as Uncle Harry spoke, "The house was almost completely ransacked by the time we arrived. There were others with Greyback. These attackers were masked and cloaked; they looked like Death Eaters.

I could see horror dawning in every one of the older generation's eyes.  
Dad noticed this and quickly in interjected, "They may have looked like the real thing, but they dueled like kids still in school."

Now, I know this was very important and very bad and I was probably gunna get caught in the middle of it, but I really needed Uncle Harry to pick up his story again.

And my humble prayers were answered. "Selena Malfoy was terrified, but her boy, Scorpius was helping us. Extraordinary wizard, that one."

"By the time backup arrived," Dad said, "the intruders had fled. They all got away." I could hear the disgust in his voice.

"What about Scorpius?" Al and I asked at the exact same time. If I hadn't been worried out of my mind, I would have thought it was pretty cool.

"Where is he? Is he hurt?" Even as I said this, I was aware of the strange and highly suspicious glances my dad was shooting me.

"He's alright; slightly injured but fine," Dad answered, looking at me carefully. I didn't care if he thought sanity had finally abandoned me; I just closed my eyes in sweet relief. Scorpius was okay. Thank Merlin.

"Selena's very shaken. I took her and Scorpius back to our house." Uncle Harry told Aunt Ginny. "I invited them to stay with us for awhile." Aunt Ginny nodded, looking like she wanted to go take care of her guests this moment.

Then I blinked. He hadn't mentioned Mr. Malfoy. Somehow, I can't see him staying at the Potter's. But that's just me. And why were Scorpius and his mom staying there anyways? Why wasn't Mr. Malfoy with them? This wasn't making any sense.

Apparently Mom agreed with me because she looked at my dad with confusion written all over her face. "What happened to Draco?" she asked nervously. Oh God, she didn't think he was…

Uncle Harry looked away as Dad answered, "He's disappeared. Vanished. There's no trace of him. _Apparently_, he walked out just before the Death Eater look-a-likes arrived."

There was something I didn't like about his tone, and his next words confirmed my suspicions. "I think Draco may have been working with them."

For the love of God, he cannot be serious.

"Ron," Mum said sharply. "That's ridiculous."

Aunt Ginny agreed angrily, "Draco would_never_ put his family in danger."

"This is_Malfoy_ we're talking about," Dad muttered darkly.

Unbelievable. "Oh don't pretend you know anything about the Malfoys." I snapped, barely keeping a lid on my temper. I could not tell you how sick I was getting of the "Oh my God, it's the _Malfoys_" tone.

My dad looked affronted, but before he could start yelling at me, Mum stepped in. "Rose is right, Ronald," she told him firmly. "You can't assume something about the man when you haven't spoken to him in years."

Hi didn't look happy about it, but for once in his life, my dad shut up. I guess miracles _do_ happen.

"Dad," Al said, worry in his eyes, "Can we go see Scorpius, like, now?"

"Yeah, can we?" I jumped in. I wasn't on the verge of having a heart attack anymore, but I wouldn't be calm until I saw that idiot for myself.

"Whoaa, hold on," my dad interrupted. I knew his ability to control himself wouldn't last. Oh well. All good things must come to an end. Even if that end came, like, _2 seconds_ later. But unfortunately, Dad was only getting started. My temper was worn to a thread along with my self-control so yeah, things were about to get ugly.

"Why do you want to see Malfoy's son?" he demanded loudly.

Let me list the reasons: 1) I'm worried about him 2) He's just been through hell and I want to comfort him 3) His dad disappeared and I want to be there for him and 4) I'm in love with him.

I'm thinking I should leave the fourth one off. That's what I was thinking, but this what I actually said: 'Because he happens to be my friend."

"Since when?" my dad practically shouted. Great. Now we had the attention of everyone.

"Since the beginning of the year," I replied coolly, turning away from him and instead asking Uncle Harry, "Can we go now?"

"What the hell were you thinking?" my dad yelled at me. "Being friends with that boy? He's a Malfoy! They're no good!"

Flashes of Scorpius filled my mind: The terror in his eyes when I was slipping away after losing so much blood after the attack, the relief in his smile as he saw me awake and relatively well the next day, and finally the fierce protectiveness he showed every day since I was attacked. Yeah, he was definitely _no good_.

That just pushed me over the edge. I was screaming now, "Oh they're no good, are they? And you know oh so much about the Malfoy's now, do you? A right expert, I suppose." Heavy sarcasm dripped from my voice.

"Don't you dare talk to me that way, young lady," Dad blustered, but I was beyond caring.

"I can't believe you! Holding thing onto an old grudge when everyone else in their right mind has moved on! Scorpius is one of my best friends and nothing is going to change that!"

"No Malfoy is going to be near my daughter." Dad screamed. "This Scorpius is most certainly as self-centered, self-absorbed, and selfish as his father." Everyone was staring, frozen, at the two of us. Al alone knew that he had gone too far.

My eyes narrowed and my voice dropped to that dangerous whisper that sent anyone with half a brain running for cover. "Self-centered, self-absorbed, and selfish," I repeated in my deadliest voice. "Well, that same Malfoy is the reason I'm alive and don't have my throat torn out. That incredibly _selfish_ Malfoy risked his own life twice to save mine. That unbelievably _self-absorbed_ Malfoy didn't tell McGonagall what really happened that night because he didn't want the recognition. And ever since then, that completely _self-centered_ Malfoy has dropped anything he was doing to accompany where ever I had to go so as not to leave me alone again."

Al closed his eyes, waiting for the final blow to fall.

"How dare you say that." I whispered, my voice cracking with anger. "He cares about me!" I screamed, my sudden change in volume causing everyone to start. "I hate you," I gasped, and then screamed again, "I HATE YOU!"

In one of my most dramatic exits ever, I turned on the spot and vanished. Of course, I only had one location in mind. I was fuming when I arrived at the end of the Potter's driveway a moment later. Three cheers for disapparation.

I could not believe my father. What he had said was irrational and stupid. And bloody ignorant. Every word of it; he didn't know _anything_.

But all my anger at my dad was forgotten when I caught sight of a blond head through the front window. A hell of a lot of other emotions filled me instead. I'll admit that my breath caught and my heart quickened, but Merlin, the pure relief I felt at seeing that he was okay overwhelmed even those feelings.

Then I remembered Mr. Malfoy, and pain was added to the mix. I wanted to get to Scorpius so badly; comfort him, tell him everything's going to be alright. But is it?  
I hurried up to the door and knocked twice. The door was yanked open and before I knew it, I had a wand between my eyes.

"Whoa, mate!" I exclaimed. "That is so not the way to greet your gorgeous best friend. And if you say, 'I don't see Al', I'll smack you." I added with a grin.

"Rose?" Scorpius dropped his wand.

"Also, not a good idea," I said, gingerly stepping over the threshold, "as said friend still desires to kill you for buying her a ridiculously expensive present."

We stared at each other for a moment, and then I threw myself into his arms

"Oh thank Merlin you're alright." I whispered, as those damn tears filled my eyes. But I held onto Scorpius tight, so happy to finally be assured that he was okay. And of course, being held by him is always a plus. A really, really, really big plus. Okaaay, moving on.

I pulled away slightly and looked up at him, just drinking him in. And he just stared right back into my eyes, the way he looked at me sent shivers all the way down my spine. The air between us grew thick with underlying tension; I felt a flush creeping up the back of my neck, but I still couldn't tear my eyes from his. Slowly he started leaning into me; I took a step closer. Was this really going to happen?

No, apparently not. Right at that moment, a women's voice rang out. "Scorpius? Who is it?" A woman who could only be Mrs. Malfoy appeared in the doorway leading in from the kitchen.

Scorpius jumped away from me so fast you woulda thought I was on fire. I caught one last glimpse of that lingering look in his eyes before he turned to his mother. Great. Now we have even more unfinished business between us.

Scorpius was now hurriedly reassuring his mother, "This is Rose Weasley, Mom."

I gave Mrs. Malfoy my most charming smile as I assessed her myself. She was a couple inches shorter than me with long dark hair she had tied up in a loose pony tail. With her slight figure and warm brown eyes it wasn't hard to imagine Mr. Malfoy falling in love with her. She just had a sweet air about her. Right now, however, she looked haunted; dark circles were under her pretty eyes and there was a large welt across one cheek. She looked like a woman who had gone through too much. And well, she had.

But at hearing my name, her face immediately broke into a smile. "Oh so this is Rose! I've heard a lot about you, dear."

I took her offered hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy." And because I'm a bad person, I turned back to Scorpius and simpered in a voice that sounded surprisingly like Leslie's, "Aww, you talk about me?"

He rolled his eyes at me, "Only to express how obnoxious you are."

"Oh I'm the obnoxious one?" I retorted sarcastically.

"Ummm yeah."

"Oh puh-lease."

"And who's the one who tore our common room apart looking for a library book that wasn't due for 4 days?"

"That's not obnoxious!" was my indignant reply.

"It was 3 o'clock in the morning!"

"You know, if you two keep this up, you'll give Ron and Hermione a run for their money." Aunt Ginny informed us as she and Uncle Harry entered the house.

Aunt Ginny went straight to Mrs. Malfoy. "We came as soon as we could. There was a slight…issue…that needed to be smoothed over." Aunt Ginny half glanced at me and I purposely looked away. Like I needed a reminder of_that_.

"I'm so sorry to be a hindrance to you and your family." She apologized but Aunt Ginny cut her off.

"Don't be ridiculous. We have plenty of room and as you can see, it comes with entertainment." She gestured pointedly to me and Scorpius; I glared at her.

"Do you do that all the time?" Mrs. Malfoy directed her question at us with a laugh.

"Several times a day," I answered sheepishly

"Not several." Scorpius disagreed.

"Ummm yeah." I said, mimicking his earlier tone. "In one day we have argued about Quidditch, DADA, books, the fourth line in the instructions to make Polyjuice Potion, your hair…"

"My hair?"

"Yeah, you were insisting that you were going to catch a cold because it was wet, when I knew for a fact, that it was dry."

"How was I supposed to notice that Amy had done a drying spell like 2 seconds before?"

"It's your_hair_!"

"Alright, enough!" Uncle Harry yelled. "You two are going to drive us crazy."

"Total Ron and Hermione moment," Aunt Ginny muttered before taking Mrs. Malfoy by the arm and leading her back into the kitchen, chatting about sleeping arrangements.

"Rose," Uncle Harry began quietly. I sighed; I knew what was coming next.

"I am not going back and I am_not_ going to apologize." I cut him off. "There is absolutely no chance, so save it."

"I don't think you should. Well, definitely going back is not a good idea. I had a hard enough time getting Ron to agree to letting you stay with us. You need time apart. Apologizes will take some time; forgiveness isn't always easy. No. What I wanted to tell you is to try to understand where your dad is coming from."

"Yeah, I know where he's coming from. He's still caught up in that bloody ancient grudge and-"

"No, Rose," Uncle Harry interrupted me gently, "That's not the only thing. Look at yourself, Rose. You're 17, about to graduate, and more than ready to take off on your own. You've grown up. You're independent and more than capable of picking your own friends. Or boyfriends, whatever the case may be." I swear Scorpius blushed at that. "And it scares your dad to death. He's losing you, Rose, and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Just think about it." And then Uncle Harry walked into his office, shutting the door softly behind him, leaving me feeling more confused and frazzled than ever.

I ran my hands through my hair, and avoided Scorpius's eyes, staring anywhere in the room but at him. My gaze fell on two pictures on the wall; I flinched, as they drove in what Uncle Harry had told me even more. The first was of Lily, who couldn't have been more than four years old, with tangled, wild red hair holding her daddy's hand and looking up at him with that adoration that only a child has. Uncle Harry was looking down at her as if that little girl clutching his leg was the most precious thing in the world. I knew that look; it was the one my father still got in his eyes whenever he looked at me. Well, when I wasn't driving him crazy.

The photo directly next to this one was much more recent, just take this summer actually. Sitting on a porch swing and striking a model pose, Lily was wearing a low cut halter dress with her dark red hair tumbling over her shoulders. She was smiling her signature quirky smile and her brown eyes were alight with mischief; she looked beautiful. And nowhere near as angelic as that sweet little four year old in the picture over, I might add.

I thought about me and how much I had changed, how much I had grown up. And for the first time, I felt a twinge of guilt at what had gone down between me and my dad. However, I was pulled from my thoughts by Scorpius's awkward shuffling of his feet. Ooops, I had forgotten that he had been here for all that. Spectacular. It was actually kinda funny to see him looking so awkward and uncomfortable. He was usually Mr. Cocky and very sure of himself. Yes, I was being entertained at his expense.  
"Sorry you had to be subjected to that," I told him, breaking the silence that had been stretching way too long after Uncle Harry had made his exit.

"Rose, what happened between you and your dad?" Concern was evident in his gray eyes.

"We had a….disagreement." I replied hesitantly, I really didn't want to spill the details quite yet.

"Must have been a pretty big disagreement," He was staring directly at me and I knew that he had guessed we had fought about him.

I sighed, "It got nasty, but that's not what I want to talk to you about right now." There. I had said it.

"Yeah?"

"Want to go for a walk?" I felt slightly queasy.

"Sure."

We headed for the door. The Potter's had a huge property; large trees stretched across the landscape, leading down to a sparkling blue lake, that had frozen over because of the cold. That was where we were headed; we walked in companiable silence for a couple moments. Now that this moment was here, I didn't know what to say. I mean, what do you say? 'So, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you. Isn't that just peachy?" Yeah, NO.

We reached the slight hill that crested down to the frozen lake, and I still hadn't said a word. Due to the fact that we had on heavy coats, neither of us had any problem with sitting down on the still slightly icy grass. Sighing, I turned to Scorpius about to explain that I had no idea how to explain what I wanted to say to him. But what I saw stopped me in my tracks. He was already staring at me with so much heat and passion that my breath caught.

He leaned in towards me, "Rose," he whispered, "I—"

"Don't talk," I breathed and closed the distance between us.

If you've ever thought that that first bite of a gooey, fresh from the oven, brownie is heaven, you're wrong._This_ was heaven.

The moment Scorpius's lips touched mine, my brain shut down. All rational thought abandoned me. My body was purely in charge. I pressed closer to Scorpius, and the passion between us increased. His hands gravitated down my back to wrap securely around my hips, before I realized what was happening, I was in his lap. Must I point out that this didn't bother me one bit? I had one arm around his neck and the other hand was in his hair.

Every part of me felt so invigorated; seriously, I felt like I was high. Maybe it was because Scorpius was a phenomenal kisser. But I like to think that it was mostly because it was Scorpius. All of you have probably figured out that I have been dreaming about making out with the guy for weeks now. If you haven't, well, I honestly I don't know what to say to you. I guess what I'm getting at, is that I genuinely care about the guy. I don't think it's possible to feel what I was feeling in this moment with a guy you're not that in to. There's so much more to kissing than the physical pleasure.  
By the time we finally broke apart, both of us were breathing heavily. I knew that I must look like a hot mess, but I didn't care. Scorpius fell back against the ground, pulling me with him. Of course, the genius had forgotten that we were on a hill. I let out a shriek as we tumbled toward the lake. I landed on top of Scorpius with a thud when we came to a stop just a few feet from the lake's edge. Amazing kisser or not, I would have_killed_ him if we had fallen through that ice.

With a groan, I pushed myself off of him, but still lay very close to him. "How very romantic of you." I remarked dryly.

"I rather liked it," he grinned impishly at me, but by the brightness in his eyes I could tell that our make out session had meant just as much to him as it had to me.

Leaning my head on his chest, I sighed, "My dad is going to murder me."

"Do you want to tell me what really happened with you two now?" Scorpius asked.

I tilted my head up so I could look at him. "Do you really want to ruin the moment quite yet?" I replied, with a glimmer of mischief in my eyes.

With a sexy smile, Scorpius lowered his lips to mine again. "Let's put it off for awhile."

Yes. Let's.

**A/N: I thought it was about time too ;D Please review with all questions, comments, and concerns. Leave a message after the beep. :D **


	10. Return Of Old Fears

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry this chapter is a bit late, but I was in Florida for the weekend. Lovely state. My goal was to see an alligator and my mission was successful. Anyways, enough with my ramblings. On with the story!**

Chapter 10

My heaven: My head resting on Scorpius's chest with his arm around me and our fingers laced together, not talking, just breathing in the other's presence and being completely and utterly content.

Man, my life was_ good_ right now.

But of course, I had to be practical and ruin it. How did I do that, you ask (more like why)? By actually considering the consequences of what had just happened. Making out with Scorpius may have been great for us but when my dad finds out I am SO dead.

I sighed and Scorpius brushed some hair out of my face and gazed at me fondly, "What's wrong, love?"

I sat up a bit and leaned on one elbow, and opened my mouth to speak, but all I could do was stare at Scorpius. Leaning back on both arms, blond hair messy and swept into his eyes, staring at me with that intense look in his eyes…well, I just couldn't say it. I knew we could never escape from it, but in that moment I didn't want to be with anyone but Scorpius.

He smiled sadly; I should have known I wouldn't have had to say it out loud for him to figure it out. He just read my mind like he always seems to be able to.

Gently cupping my face in his hands, he whispered, "I know. I know we're screwed and that you're dad's gunna murder you, but we're going to give this chance. After all," the light in his eyes turned mischievous, "I haven't been smitten with you for the last 2 years just have it end like this."

I couldn't keep the shock from my face. "What?" I exclaimed. "You, you've liked since 5th year?"

"It's more of the end of 5th year really." Scorpius replied casually, watching me with amused eyes.

"You had a funny way of showing it." I said, shaking my head, still trying to wrap my head around this.

Scorpius laughed at that. "Well it's not like I could just waltz up to you and ask you out. For one, you still hated my guts and two you're Rose Weasley, off limits and out of my league."

I scoffed, "Me? Out of _your_ league? You do realize that half the girl population at Hogwarts are completely infatuated with you, right? And I've had what, one boyfriend?"

"Your family is to blame for that one. The Potters and Weasleys are notorious for their protectiveness. I for one, have seen many the young men being threatened by Al."

"That bastard," I muttered. I'll admit its sweet of him, but for Merlin's sake. I can tell off guys on my own, thanks very much.

Scorpius chuckled and I leaned comfortably against him again. Running a hand through my hair, he asked softly, "Do you want to tell me what happened with your father now?"

I stiffened for a moment and then relented. "I found out that your home was being attacked and when Dad got back from going to help, well, I kinda freaked out. I was so worried that I just didn't care what he would think of me reacting to that in such a way. I told him that we were friends and he totally hit the roof."

"He hates me that much?" Scorpius's voice was controlled, but I could tell that he was hiding hurt.

"He's never forgiven your father, and he just won't let go of a grudge." I knew I was avoiding the question, but I wasn't willing to answer it.

"Anyways, he started saying awful things, even after I told him how you had saved my life. Which, by the way, I don't appreciate you not taking credit for." I shot him a glare that I didn't really mean. "And I lost it; I yelled that I hated him and disapparated here."

"You don't mean that, you know." Scorpius said blankly. "You don't really hate him and you wish that you hadn't told him that." Oh God. We weren't talking about me and my daddy issues anymore.

"They're going to find him," I told him, with as much confidence that I could muster.

"What if he joined them?" the question seemed ripped from him, like he was voicing his greatest fear. A fear that he didn't even want to admit to himself.

Scorpius's face, so desperate with those beautiful gray eyes filled with an overwhelming amount of pain, broke my heart.

"No. It isn't true." I replied fiercely. "He's your_ father_. You know him better than that."

"What if I don't?" It was said so quietly that I'm sure I wasn't meant to hear it. What could Scorpius possibly mean by_ that_?

We didn't discuss Mr. Malfoy any more after that. Distraction came in the form of Al and Aunt Ginny. I could see the smile in Aunt Ginny's eyes as she looked at Scorpius and I sprawled out together; Al's eyes however, told a different story. I almost felt bad for Scorpius. Aunt Ginny and I left the two of them to it and headed back to the house at a leisurely pace.

I knew I was grinning like a fool so it didn't surprise me when Aunt Ginny gave me a very dry look and remarked. "Having a good time?"

"Hell yeah," I replied. "I do hope Al doesn't hurt him too badly."

Aunt Ginny shook her head, "I take it your staying at our place for awhile?"

All those warm fuzzy feelings that came with the thought of Scorpius disappeared instantly, being replaced with anger, frustration and just a tiny bit of guilt.

"Yes." I said shortly.

"Look, Rose…" Aunt Ginny began, but I didn't want to hear it.

"I'm not listening to a lecture right now. You of all people should know what Dad gets like. When he finds out about Scorpius and I, it'll make what happened today look like a preschool squabble. And I can't go back there, because when he takes a go at Scorpius, which we both know he will, I won't be able to control myself." I might as well say it like it is.

Aunt Ginny vented a long sigh, but I knew that she knew that I was right. "I understand, Rose. Being his younger sister, well I thought that was bad. I was just lucky Harry is Ron's best friend. Don't get me wrong though, he still gave him a good talking too," She smiled slightly, most likely remembering those days, so long ago. "But you, you have it ten times worse. Just remember, Ron loves you. Even at the times when you can't stand him."

I didn't reply as we were entering the house and were soon caught up in the flurry of preparing a quick meal as our real Christmas dinner had been interrupted.

Christmas. I had practically forgotten that it was. So much had happened in what seemed to be such a small amount of time. Sitting down to a normal meal at four had led to one of the scariest moments in my life followed by my nastiest fight with my  
father yet, and then finally giving into my feelings and kissing Scorpius.

Man, what a day.

Needless to say, I crashed at the Potter's for the rest of break. No way was I going back to Psycho Dad. That pleasure was going to have to wait.

And honestly, I couldn't have been having more fun. Between Al, Scorpius, and I there was no limits to what we could come up with to entertain ourselves. I'll admit, we had some fun with the local muggles, but you didn't hear it from me. Ah yes, the enchanted chicken was a good one…

Moving on. Amy and Katie dropped by one day and spent the entire first half an hour that they were in my presence, squealing and telling me that they knew I would eventually come to my senses and kiss Scorpius. And I got a record number of knowing looks. Have I mentioned I hate those?

Of course, break wouldn't be complete without me at least a mention of what Scorpius and I have been up to. I have to try not to swoon thinking about it.

Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm not that lovesick yet.

There has been a couple late night walks and stolen kisses, but really, what can you do when you're staying in the house of your overprotective relatives? But the way he looks at me is enough to take the place of many hot make out sessions. He has this way of making me feel like I'm the most amazing, beautiful person in the world with just a glance. I know that that's not true, but if a person can make you feel like that regardless, well, then you know something's going right.

I wish I could say that my relationship with my father was going as well as mine with Scorpius was (how ironic is that?). But I haven't spoken to him since Christmas, and to tell the truth, I have no desire to. I know that the topic of Scorpius will come up and I'm not ready to deal with that yet. My mom has come by a couple of times though. The first time she tried to convince me to come back home, but, I've said it before, I'm nothing if not stubborn.

The days flew by and as each one passed, the day of our return to Hogwarts loomed closer. It wasn't like I didn't want to go back; in fact I really did. Scorpius and I were an "item" now, I couldn't wait to show that off.

Yes, I realize I will immediately shoot to the top of every girls' hate list and will become the lucky receiver of dagger glares every where there is a petty bimbo. Isn't it great?

No. I'm not being sarcastic. For once.

This is gunna be fun. Scorpius is convinced that I'm clinically insane. He's so supportive.

But even the thought of being able to mess with people's heads once we got back, wasn't enough to dispel the growing knot of fear in my stomach. Staying at the house of the Head of the Auror Department, who also happens to be your uncle, definitely helps you find out things. And in my case, some things that really didn't want to know.  
The hunt for Greyback wasn't going so well; that much was apparent. Someone was helping him, someone important. The aurors were checking up on old DeathEaters, anyone who had showed any kind of support for Voldemort back in the day, but they weren't getting any where. And of course, this led back to Mr. Malfoy's sudden disappearance. More and more people were becoming convinced that he was working with Greyback. By people, I mean Aurors. The news hasn't been leaked to the general public yet and Uncle Harry is hoping to keep it that way. Apparently he's come up with some sort of cover story for Mr. Malfoy's absence and so far it's working.

But this whole thing is tearing Scorpius apart. It was reaching a breaking point until one day he entered Uncle Harry's office with a determined, but almost resigned look on his face. He was in there with Uncle Harry for almost an hour, and when he came out, he refused to say a word about it, and finally I let it go, but I watched him carefully since. I don't know what he told him, but it was enough to keep Uncle Harry locked in his office for the rest of the day.

I couldn't keep worrying about Scorpius though, because it soon hit me that Greyback was still after me and my cousins. That thought was enough to cause me to break out in a cold sweat at night. I started getting nightmares. When Scorpius asked me about the bags under my eyes, and brushed him off, saying that I was fine. He didn't say anything more, but I knew he was watching me with concern.

Finally, the day before we went back to Hogwarts was here. I spent most of the day with Scorpius, out by the lake. We all played games together that night, even Uncle Harry joined in, though he lost spectacularly to Lily at Exploding Snap. Watching him sit there with one arm affectionately around her shoulders, I felt a small pang of sadness. Things just weren't like that between me and my father anymore. I had my doubts that they ever would be.

Scorpius sensed my melancholy mood, and pulled me against him. I settled on his chest and he stroked my hair once before murmuring in my ear, "Everything's going to be okay."

With my dad, yeah they probably would be. We had some things we needed to work out, but all families do. But in regards to Greyback, well, that was a different story. 

This hasn't been said in a long time and many hoped it never would be, but it's the truth. Hogwarts isn't safe anymore.


	11. Not In The Plan

Chapter 11

Well, we arrived at Platform 9 ¾ the next day with relatively little chaos. I was about to follow Scorpius through the barrier when Uncle Harry grabbed my arm.

"Rose," he was speaking, quietly and urgently, "Ron and I are coming to Hogwarts. McGonagall finally was able to get the Ministry to grant Hogwarts Auror protection against Greyback. Your dad was one of the first to sign up; I tried to convince him otherwise, but since what happened on Christmas, he's more determined than ever  
to go. I'm sorry; I just wanted to warn you."

I forced a smile and replied, "You're still coming into the DADA classes right? Those Unforgivable Curses have become a lot more relevant, eh?"

Uncle Harry nodded, "I'll be in there sometime next week. Try to contain your excitement." Shaking my head, I passed through the barrier.

Great. Just _great_. Psycho Dad's coming to Hogwarts to keep an eye on his wayward daughter.

I'm going to_kill_ him. Forget Greyback, let _me_ get my hands on him. I cannot believe he's doing this! Just because of Scorpius. He doesn't even know about the recent change in our relationship yet….

This term is going to be a lot more exciting than I bargained for.

Oh well. Whatever was coming, would come; and I would have to meet it when it did.

Uncle Harry said something along the lines of that to me once. Though I seriously doubt he had this scenario in mind. Running a hand through my hair, I jumped on the train and joined my friends.

It was growing dark by the time the train came to a stop. Amy had been going on and on about how she could totally update my wardrobe for the last half an hour and it was seriously getting old.

I practically ran off that train.

Scorpius came up behind me, and with his breath warm in my ear, he whispered, "Let's get a carriage to ourselves."

I forcibly ignored the goosebumps running up and down my spine.

"Excellent idea," I grinned. Plan Totally Shock Hogwarts has officially begun.

Amy shot me a…_knowing look_ as Scorpius and I climbed into a carriage very discreetly. For once, I was grateful for it. She understood, and dragged Al off, no doubtedly to find their own carriage.

As soon as we were inside, Scorpius pulled me to him and kissed me oh so softly, barely brushing our lips together.

But I didn't want that right now. The thought of showing up tradition, that bloody grudge, and my father, had made me reckless.

Grabbing his shirt collar, I pulled Scorpius against me harder; our kiss intensified.

Oh if anyone found out that the Head Boy and Girl were making out in the carriages on the way to Hogwarts…

I couldn't help it. A small giggle escaped me, and Scorpius pulled back slightly.

"What?" he asked his voice slightly uneven. Given that passionate make-out session that had just occurred, that was understandable. I was shaky too.

"I can't believe we're doing this," I explained, biting back a laugh, and meaning not only us making out, but_us_in general. "We're completely mental."

"Speak for yourself," he said, eyebrow raised.

"Fine. I'm the one that's barking. You have a barking mad girlfriend. Happy?"

"Very." He was staring at me with a look in his stormy gray eyes that made me shiver.

He twirled a strand of my hair between his fingers. Then his hands came to my face, running down my cheek bones.

"Rose," He had the most adorable look on his face, this sort of bemused expression. "I think I—"

But before I could hear exactly _what_ he thought, the carriage came to a halting stop.

I grinned up at Scorpius, "Showtime."

He smiled, the moment vanishing.

"Umm Rose? What exactly are we going to do?" He sounded a little nervous.

Honestly, the boy should have more faith.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, "I said cheerfully. "I've got it all figured out."

"That's what I was afraid of." He muttered.

I narrowed my eyes. "And that means…?"

"That you can be…_rash_ sometimes"

"To put it lightly," Al called as he and Amy passed us, holding hands.

"I am not." I glared at Al and then at Scorpius, who was chuckling.

"Yeah, you are." Even dating couldn't keep the two of us from arguing.

"Am not."

Are too."

"Am not."

Are too."

"Fine!" I crossed my arms. "I'm your rash_and_ mental girlfriend. You're a lucky guy."

"But I am," His voice suddenly became lower and sexy. "I have the most attractive girl at Hogwarts for my girlfriend."

"Thanks for lying."

He slipped his arm around my waist, earning us a few particular looks, the first of many. "Rose, you honestly haven't noticed the way guys look at you?"

"I don't know!" I mean, sure I've seen a couple guys checking me out, but none of them have ever even made a move beyond that. "You are kidding me, right?" I said, with disbelief in my voice. Not counting Scorpius, my grand total of boyfriends has been, wait for it…one.

Yeah. So you can imagine why I was slightly skeptical.

"Rose, I told you before how Al tells off guys for you. Well, that's the only thing he and the other male members of your family do. They pretty much warn every guy to stay away from you or just threaten them with bodily harm if they ever hurt you. That's the only reason why you don't have guys pining over you at school."

I had stopped dead in my tracks. So my lovely cousins and brother have been scaring away guys for me? How very considerate of them. Oh man, they are _so_ dead.

"Rose?" Scorpius stopped in front of me. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking of various creative ways to murder my overprotective family."

He laughed, and we kept walking. We were now almost up to the castle. "On the bright side," he conceded. "If not for them, you could be dating some loser right now and not have the privilege of being with yours truly."

I rolled my eyes to heaven. "And how, by the way, did you escape my cousins' wrath?"

"Oh don't worry. I have been thoroughly threatened. I refuse to think about what your dad'll do to me."

I had forgotten about Psycho Dad up til this point. If he wasn't here already, he would be soon.

"Can't be worse than what he'll do to me when he finds out about us. Come on, let's go. I'm starving." I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the Great Hall.

Because we had taken our time getting up here, Scorpius and I were the last ones to enter the Hall which consequently caused all eyes to turn to us as we walked to our table.

Still holding hands. Yep, I had forgotten about that. If people weren't staring before, they sure were now.

Might as well have fun while I can.

"Do you people have no manners?" I exclaimed indignantly, pulling Scorpius closer to me. "It's rude to stare."

We passed a group of shallow girls that I knew for a fact were part of the Scorpius Fan Club. I stopped and said in a stage whisper that almost everyone could here, "Yes, I _am_ dating Scorpius." That earned quite a few, rather surprised laughs.

"If you're done, Ms. Weasley," came McGonagall's stern voice from the front of the hall, thought I could hear her amusement.

"Not hardly, Professor, but the fun will have to wait, won't it?"

"Yes. It shall."

We sat down amid the laughter of our friends and a couple guys leaned over and whispered in Scorpius ear. He smirked and I shot him a warning glare.

Right. Like I didn't know what _they_ were talking about. I prefer to be objectified on my own time.

McGonagall stood up and informed us of the security changes, how aurors would now be stationed at Hogwarts until Greyback was caught. This was actually the whole reason why we were having another all school feast. So McGonagall could tell us that curfew was shorter and we were all in danger.

Welcome back, folks.

That cheeriness over with, McGonagall clapped her hands and the delicious feast appeared.

I guess the idea was that if they could stuff us with so much piping hot, scrumptious comfort food we'd all forget about our friendly, neighborhood werewolf, the very official looking Aurors strutting about, and the fact that everyone was scared out of their minds because nothing like this has happened since the second war and no one quite knows how to handle it.

Well, that's my theory at least.

But all that aside, it was a lovely feast. It was great to see all my friends again. Amy and Katie, who had shown great restraint over the holidays, were now pelting me with questions about Scorpius and how exactly this thing happened.

And I mean,_exactly_. I swear, I just would have recorded the damn thing if I had known they'd have wanted so many bloody details.

But anyway, I made it through the rest of the feast unscathed, but was very happy when McGonagall sent us all off to bed; I was exhausted. And frankly, glad to have some alone time with Scorpius. Those snatched moments on the carriage and walk to the castle seemed like ages ago.

So I was just happy to wander the halls on the way to our dormitory holding hands and relishing the momentary lapse in the insanity that seemed to rule my life these days.

"Do you think everything's going to be alright?" I asked suddenly.

"What?" Scorpius stopped. We were only a few feet from everyone's favorite completely mental knight's portrait.

I looked up at Scorpius, as everything hit me like a ton of bricks. Greyback, not speaking to my father, Mr. Malfoy gone without a trace, the pain Scorpius was feeling at his disappearance, his fear that his father might have once again joined the Dark Side, my confusion over my feelings for him, my desire, my longing, my terror.

"Is everything going to be okay again?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly. I stared desperately into those gorgeous gray eyes and saw all my emotions mirrored there.

Scorpius cupped his hands around my face and smiled sadly, "I don't know." He said with complete honesty. "I wish…I wish I could tell you I did. That I knew it would all be okay. That our lives would return to normal, that you didn't have to be scared anymore. But I can't."

"I didn't want some sugar-coated lie," I looked away uncomfortablely. I also hadn't meant to sound like a scared little girl whose safe world has been ripped out from under her feet. But let's face it, I _am_.

Not long ago, my biggest worries in life were whether or not I was going to make Head Girl and keeping Lily from getting into too much trouble. Granted, the second one wasn't easy, but still.

Now everything was screwed up. I don't know how people lived like this, back when Voldemort was alive. All I have to worry about is a lunatic werewolf and that alone has me waking up shaking.

Scorpius was my anchor, the one person I felt so connected to. Who wouldn't lie to me, just so I could hear what I wanted to hear. He didn't try to change who I am, he was just there for me.

Funny how I couldn't stand the sight of him a few months ago.

Scorpius pulled me to him, and I lost myself in the feeling of being held and safety.  
"I love you," It was just a breath in my ear, it was as powerful as a storm. I raised my head and stared deep into his eyes, completing our movie worthy scene, and whispered, "I love you too."

An electric tingle traveled down my spine when our lips touched. Scorpius tilted my head back as the kiss became increasingly more passionate. My back hit the wall, but I barely noticed. My world in that moment was focused solely on Scorpius.

So. Let's take stock of the situation, shall we?

Scorpius and I, pressed so close together, there's not an inch of breathing space. But we're really not thinking about breathing. Nope. We're more focused on making out. My hands had already traveled from around his neck, to start unconsciously unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt.

Now. You can probably see why this wasn't the best time for my dad to show up.

"ROSE HERMIONE WEASLEY!"

Screw my life.

**A/N: Hehehehe oh Ron. He's not gunna be happy, is he? No, not at all. Please review. I really am begging :P******


	12. Nightmares

Chapter 12

Someone is out to get me. I am_sure_ of it.

Either that or the big guy upstairs as a cruel sense of humor.

I don't believe I have ever seen my dad this angry before; I half expected smoke to start pouring from his ears. That would have been pretty funny actually. He was storming towards with a look of utmost shock, disgust and rare fury on his face.

Needless to say, Scorpius and I jumped apart very quickly. I tried to calm my breathing and smoothed my hair with shaking hands. I had never gotten so intimate with a boy before. It had been a whole new experience for me; I'm not gunna deny that I enjoyed it.

And Dad just _had_to come by and ruin it.

"What the hell are you doing?" He roared, coming closer.

"Gardening." I sneered sarcastically. To tell the truth, I was sick and tired of this. My being Scorpius is not some kind of crime. I get the whole daddy protection act; hell, anyone's father would be none too pleased to stumble upon his daughter lip locked with some guy. But I knew he was only being this way because of Scorpius. Well, actually Scorpius's bloody last name. When is he going to realize I'm making my own choices now? He doesn't own me; I'm not his property. I'm _nobody's_ property.

Scorpius put his arm around my shoulders; his way of showing he's going to stick this out with me. Brave and sweet, but not the smartest move, given the circumstances.

"Get your hands off my daughter, Malfoy" Dad thundered threateningly.

"If Rose asks me to, you have my assurances that I will, sir."

Did Scorpius just diss my dad? I believe he did. Awesome.

If possible, Dad turned an even darker shade of red. Scorpius had subtly reminded my father that between him and me, I was the one calling the shots. I love that boy.

I turned to Scorpius, "Thanks, sweetheart, but you better leave this to me." My voice was casual, but my eyes begged him not to argue.

He hated this; I could see it on his face. He hated how my father felt about him, hated that being with me was so hard, hated how this hurt me. But this situation could go from bad to worse way too quickly for my comfort, my father was a loose cannon and Scorpius needed to leave now.

"You stay where you are, Malfoy," my dad said, advancing on us.

"Go," I whispered and then I did something I had never dreamed I would ever do; I pulled my wand on my father. Something inside me broke when I did that. I had only done it to distract him from Scorpius, but it broke me to think my relationship with my dad had come to this.

There we were. Father and daughter. Both angry as hell, with wands pointed directly at each other.

Uncle Harry skidded around the corner, saw this lovely scene and sprinted to us.

"Ron. Think about what you're doing." Uncle Harry sounded quite calm, the exact opposite of my father.

"He had his hands on her. He was kissing her. Malfoy's son." His voice was shaking.

Dear God, the man was completely irrational.

"Whatever happened, Ron, this is Rose you're pointing your wand at." Uncle Harry was trying to talk some sense into my dad.

Yeah, good luck with_that_.

As for me, I was standing there fuming, but I had lowered my wand. As much as I wanted to hex him, I wouldn't fight my father.

Dad's wand fell to floor with a clatter, he looked horrified.

"Rose," he said, and reached out to me.

I backed away, out of reach. "Don't touch me. I don't want you to touch me. When will get that I care about Scorpius?" My eyes were over bright with tears. "You don't even try to understand how I feel about him. You won't even consider that he might be a good guy. You don't care that he makes me feel safe or how happy he makes me." I said this was so much relish that I surprised even myself.

"I look out for you, you don't need anyone to keep you safe." Dad interrupted despairingly.

"Funny," I laughed without humor. "Scorpius wasn't the one pointing a wand at me."

Dad turned away with a look of pain etched on his face; but I didn't care.

"All you care about is your stupid grudge that you just can't let go of," I continued, my voice rising in pitch until it finally broke and I whispered, "You don't even care that you're breaking my heart."

Tears stung my eyes as I said, "Just leave me alone." I turned, entered the common room and slammed the portrait hole closed.

Leaning against the wall, I realized that I was shaking with anger and sobs. Why were we this way? There was a time when we were so close, but then… I don't know what happened; we just drifted apart. It wasn't that I didn't love him, we just aren't that close. And then once I hit 15, he became this over protective father we know and love. I told him he didn't have anything to worry about; I'm not a slut and not really even that much of a flirt. I've certainly never slept with a guy and I still talk to my mom. But this trust I want from him, seems to be exactly what I can't have.

And throw Scorpius in the mix and, well, all hell breaks loose.

Right now, Scorpius approached me warily, watching me with concerned eyes. I attempted a watery smile, "Well, that could've gone better."

He smiled sadly at me, "I'm so sorry, Rose." He pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly. I settled myself perfectly against his chest, pressing my face into the soft fabric of his shirt. "What am I going to do?" I mumbled into his chest.

I hated how things had gone down between my father and I, but he didn't understand. To stop being with Scorpius, which I knew was what he wanted, was something I just couldn't do. I loved him.

Scorpius pulled back a little and lifted one hand up to my face, stroking back my hair. "We're gonna do this, you know that right? You're dad…needs time. But I am never going to leave you." I stared up at him and right then I realized that he needed depended on me just as much as I did on him. He saw me as his refuge, the one person who didn't care who his father was. Warmth and intensity shot through our locked gaze and I shivered down to my toes.

A wicked grin tugged at the corners of Scorpius's mouth. He lowered his face closer and closer to mine, teasingly, until our lips barely brushed.

I would never tire of kissing Scorpius. Because when I kissed him, everything else disappeared. No daddy issues, no werewolves, no fear.

And that totally sounded like a cheesy line from a movie. Ah, how love has changed me.

I broke the kiss, and Scorpius winked at me. "Besides, your dad will warm up to me. I have that irresistible charm."

"Though your ego could use some downsizing," I replied, tossing back my air and shooting him a look.

He chuckled and then pecked me on the cheek. "Goodnight, love."

I smiled, "Don't forget, we have an early morning tomorrow."

He groaned. If my family thought I was scary in the morning, wait til they saw Scorpius. He takes 'not a morning person' to a whole new level.

I still think he looks adorable right after he's woken up though. But I digress.

I headed into my bedroom and Scorpius into his. It was a little weird having my boyfriend sleeping in the room next to me. My mind does wander….

I wish I could say that as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light, but besides being terribly cliché, that just wasn't the case. I should have been exhausted; it had been such a long day, but sleep didn't come to me. After lying awake for several hours, I finally fell into an uneasy sleep. That's when the nightmares began. First, I was standing in a cemetery, dressed all in black, staring down at a headstone. I couldn't read the name, but the feeling of despair and sadness welled up inside of me until it became impossible to contain. Whoever had died had taken all the happiness out of my world. And worse than that, I had wronged this person terribly, and I had never received their forgiveness. The mist and low hanging fog that had obscured my vision and I could read the name on the headstone; it was my father. Tragedy after tragedy followed that first nightmare. Finally, I was running through Hogwarts, running like I had never run before. Part of me knew this wasn't real, but I couldn't escape. Arms pumping at my sides, lungs about to burst, I ran on, but it wasn't fast enough; he was going to catch me. I could hear his panting and his lopsided feet pounding the stone floor. A terror gripped me like I had never felt before, I tried to scream but only a hoarse croak left my throat. Then a hairy paw gripped my arm, sharp claws digging into my soft skin. I whipped around to see two, large, ruthless, yellow eyes and Greyback's face twisted into a feral grin as his fangs plunged into my bare throat.

I woke up screaming, and bolted upright in bed, sweating and shaking._It was just a dream, just a dream. _  
My door flew open and Scorpius burst in, panic in his gray eyes. "Rose! Rose, what happened? Are you alright?"

He took one look at me, white a s a ghost with huge scared eyes, and came and sat down on my bed. I instinctively clung to him, trembling.

"Shh," he murmured, holding me. "It's over now. Nothing's going to hurt you."

"Greyback." I whispered. "He was so close." I knew I wasn't making any sense, I was practically incoherent as it is.

"He's not here," Scorpius promised. "It was only a dream."

I just clung to him harder. I couldn't shake my terror or the despair that was filling me. "Stay with me," I begged.

He hesitated for a moment, looking unsure about whether this was a good idea. I _knew_ it wasn't a good idea.

"Of course I will."

And that's how I fell asleep, in Scorpius's arms, utterly wiped out from both exhaustion and fear.

Now, you're probably thinking that waking up in the morning like this would be awkward. And it was, a little. Scorpius still had his protectively wrapped around me and I had fallen asleep on his chest. It felt so good though, to wake up being held. Then the previous night's events and nightmares came back to me and my initial cheerfulness dimmed a little.

Then Scorpius stirred slightly and I just couldn't resist. I pushed myself closer to him and began slowly trailing my hands up his stomach. His breath quickened, and I loved how I had this kind of effect on him. I slowly carded my fingers through his soft blonde hair, and brushed my lips down his jaw.

Yes, I knew I was playing with fire. Or rather, a horny teenage guy.

"You should stop," Scorpius groaned as my hands fiddled with his with the hem of his shirt, fingertips brushing his skin.

I narrowed my eyes playfully and placed my hands on his chest, leaning teasingly close; his gorgeous gray eyes opened. "Make me." I was now directly on top of him, my hair hanging around my face. His hand reached up and pulled me to him. When our lips met a heat like I've never felt before roared through my veins. With one arm, Scorpius flipped me under him and his hands slipped under my shirt. It was so passionate, so fiery, so intense, and SO going too far.

With an effort, I pulled away, untangling myself from Scorpius. He shot me a questioning, almost hopeful, look and flashed him a cocky grin, despite my ragged breathing. "I'm a good girl, Scorpius. Now get up."

I threw a pillow at him and he groaned, "You're heartless, Rose."

"I know." I was still grinning when I turned and glanced at the clock. "Oh my God!" I shrieked. "How is it that late? We've missed half of Divination."

"Good. I hate that class," Scorpius grumbled as he went unwillingly, and not nearly fast enough, back to his room to change.

I was still having a panic attack as I dragged a brush through my hair, threw it up in a ponytail, and pulled on my uniform. I was searching frantically for my bag and muttering under my breath, when Scorpius's arms slipped around my waist. I struggled at first, "Scorpius, we have to _go_."

"No we don't." His breath was warm on my neck, making me blush. "You need to learn how to slow down, Rose. Live a little." And to make his point, he twirled me around and pulled me into a prolonged kiss, moving his lips against mine slowly and deliberately.

I melted.

He ended the kiss, but kept his forehead pressed to mine and his eyes closed. My panic and hurry had disappeared, I guess Scorpius had a point, I might just be a teensy bit uptight.

So I did a Rose Weasley unheard of; I skipped Divination. Instead, I decided to have a little more fun, after all, we _did_ have an entire dorm to ourselves. Stepping out of Scorpius's embrace I pointed my wand at the radio and immediately the newest hits started blaring. Scorpius winced "I can't believe you like this stuff.

"You wanted me to lighten up? This is me lightening up."

For the next half an hour Scorpius and I, well it was only me really, sang along to every song I knew and danced around my room while I tried to make myself look decent. Scorpius lounged on my bed and watched me with amusement, occasionally making a snide comment here and there on my dancing skills.

I rolled my eyes, totally unembarrassed "Yeah, because you're just a fantastic dancer."

He had no response to that besides to shake his head.

After a little more making out, we headed to the kitchens to grab a bite and barely made it to Transfiguration on time. McGonagall watched us critically and her thin eyebrows rose as she noticed our interlocked fingers, but Scorpius just winked at her and I waggled my eyebrows suggestively. McGonagall shook her head and Scorpius and I entered the room laughing.

Amy caught me after class and thoroughly questioned me on my earlier  
disappearance from Divination. After I convinced her I was still in possession of my virtue, she finally relented and I was able to get the news on her and Al. She absolutely gushed about how sweet and cute and _amazing_he was. I barely suppressed an eyeroll at several different points; this was _Al_ we were talking about. But I guess I'm biased because I will forever see him as my annoying cousin.

Then Katie appeared and she, Al, Scorpius, Amy and I headed into DADA, which turned out to be a hell of a lot more interesting than I had been expecting.  
Because when Scorpius and I entered the classroom, flirting lightly and hand in hand, we were greeted by the sight of Uncle Harry at the front of the room…with my father.

I froze immediately, and Amy and Katie both shot me worried glances; I had filled them in earlier. Scorpius alone seemed unaffected by this turn of events and just pulled me to the back of the room.

I took a couple calming breaths and Scorpius smoothed my hair, ignoring the death glares he was receiving from my father. I refused to even look at him. Thankfully, Uncle Harry wasted no time getting into his lesson. I distracted myself for a little while by taking great amusement in Al's reaction to having his father at his school, teaching a class that he and his girlfriend were in no less.

Uncle Harry clapped his hands together briskly. "I assume you all know why I'm here. And who I am." He added wryly, which earned a couple laughs. He smiled briefly but sobered quickly. "Due to recent…events, me and some of my colleagues," he gestured to my dad, who I was still ignoring. "Have been called in to protect you and, in some cases, to prepare you."

"Prepare us?" Katie questioned.

Uncle Harry answered her, "For the Unforgivable Curses and any other Dark Magic that you may be forced to protect yourselves from."

So the Ministry thought it had gotten that bad? I felt a tightening in my stomach as I thought of my last run in with Grayback and the Cruciatus Curse. I shivered involuntarily and Scorpious squeezed my hand.

"Now, almost all of you have no idea what these Curses feel like, but-"

"Unless you're lucky like me." I don't know why I cut in like that; it was almost like I wanted everyone to know what had happened to me. I wanted them to take this _seriously_. Ignorance may be said to be bliss, but it wasn't here. I learned that from a firsthand experience, and I knew my friends and classmates would instinctively try to make light of this, just because it was easier than accepting the much scarier much more real, truth.

My father, who had been standing as motionless and impassive as a rock up to this point, flinched visibly and Scorpius stiffened next to me. Uncle Harry turned eyes dark with pain on me. "Yes, Rose," he acknowledged quietly. "Would you care to describe what it was like for us?"

His question surprised me, but I stood up at once. Shocked faces of my classmates stared up at me, avid with attention and barely disguised curiosity.

Dad made a noise of protest and made to say something, but I beat him to it. "No, Dad. I want to do this." That was the truth. If what I could tell my friends and classmates would help them in any way grasp the seriousness of this situation, I would do it. They were all at risk because of me anyways. Because of Greyback's deranged desire to kill me and my cousins.

And so I told them in an emotionless and flat voice even though it terrified me to re live that horrible night. I spared no details and I saw a couple people wince and send me looks of pity as I vividly described the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. My father had gone white and Scorpius was slowly clenching and unclenching his fists.

As soon as I finished, I sat down hard, it took me a moment to stop my shaking. Images and memories from that night kept flashing before my eyes, each one bringing back the pain and the terror.

The room spun and suddenly, I had to get out, I couldn't sit in this room for another minute. I stood up quickly. "I need some air." I mumbled to Teddy and quickly exited without a backward glance.

The halls all blurred together as I nearly ran through the castle. I didn't know where I was going. Taking a deep breath, I stopped. That's when I recognized the damp halls and musty smells; I had come to the dungeon hall where it had all happened.

The cave in had been repaired but I still knew the exact spot where Grayback had tortured me. I don't know how long I stood there, not thinking, just standing.  
I wanted to know how Greyback had gotten in. Lately, that thought had been driving me crazy. I wanted to know how that bastard had done it. I know he had help; there was no other feasible option. I was filled with a sudden fury and desire to find out who those scumbags were; they needed to pay for what they had caused. I don't know why I was feeling all this anger now, but I was going to act on it.

Tonight I was going to come back, alone, and do some snooping. Because the bad guys always operate at night. I watch too many movies.

But then again, I've always wanted to pull a Nancy Drew.

**Hey, folks. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought, by leaving one of those handy dandy reviews. They are my friends. Just like chocolate. You know what to do!**


	13. You're Kidding Me, Right?

Chapter 13

I returned to class for the rest of the day, but asked my friends to back off a little. I needed time to get myself together. I ended up eating in the kitchens by myself. By the time night was falling and myself imposed exile was coming to an end, all I wanted was to see Scorpius.

I stumbled into the Head's common room to find Scorpius sitting on the couch by the fireplace, his head in his hands.

"Scorpius?" I asked tentatively. "Are you okay?"

His head lifted, but he didn't look at me. "We shouldn't have to deal with this." He said softly, but with steel in his voice. "You, me, we shouldn't have this on us. This was _their_ war; their fight. But now the faults of our parents have been dumped on us."

I stood frozen with shock. "How can you say that?" I whispered. "Everything they did, they did for their future, for us. So we could live in a world that wasn't teeming with fear and death."

This wasn't like Scorpius, something happened, something that he wasn't telling me about.

Scorpius whirled on me in a rare display of anger that I wasn't used to. "Well, it's not fair! Every mistake my father's ever made comes back to haunt me, and you, you're being hunted by a maniac who wants revenge on your _parents_. We haven't done a bloody thing wrong. Neither of us deserves this, Rose!"

Scorpius was hurting more than I realized. He was lost and confused and hurt, but just like his father, he hides behind a mask; a mask that he was finally letting me glimpse past. I got the feeling that all of this was going back to his dad's recent disappearance.

I approached him gingerly and took his hands in mine. "It's all going to be alright."

We both knew that was a lie. Hardly anything in our lives was 'alright'.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, his anger dissipated. His shoulders slumped and his gorgeous gray eyes that usually sparkled with humor, clouded over with sadness.

I held his face in my hands, but still he wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore," he mumbled.

"Do what?" I asked cautiously.

"This," he gestured between us. "Us. You and me."

I slapped him.

"What the hell is that about?" He glared angrily at me, as his cheek flared red.

"You're kidding me, right? What's up with _you_? Because this is not the Scorpius Malfoy who I woke up with this morning." I got right in his face, ignoring my insane desire to kiss him. "Something is clearly going on with you and DON'T try to turn it on 'us', because you know damn well, we're making this work."

"But it _is_ about us," he hissed and shoved a piece of parchment in my hand, then stalked to the other side of the room. "Read it. _That's_ what the world thinks of me now. That's what you've signed yourself up for by being with me."

I glanced down at the parchment; it was a letter. A letter from the Ministry. Apparently Scorpius had applied for Auror training next year. This was a letter of rejection. I read the contents quickly, and with each word my eyes narrowed more.

I didn't say a thing to Scorpius, just crumpled up the letter, took out my wand, and incinerated it.

"Rose!" Scorpius yelped. "What are you doing?"

"That's what I think about _that_." I said firmly. "That's complete rubbish and you know it, Scorpius."

The Ministry was refusing to let Scorpius apply to Auror training because of, and I quote, "Your father's questionable and possibly dangerous recent activities."

Complete rubbish.

Once again, Scorpius was being punished for something he couldn't _control_. We can't choose our family. If that was possible, I might have chosen one in which insanity didn't run so strongly….

Anyways.

Scorpius was bitter. "It's only going to get worse, Rose. If he doesn't turn up with a _really_ good explanation, all of this is going to fall on me. And it'll extend to you if we stay together. You deserve better than that."

I laughed at the pure idiocy of his suggestion. "If you think I _care_what the bloody world thinks of me, you clearly haven't been paying attention."

"But _I_ do. You know what our world thinks of my family. This may be a joke at school, but once we're out in the real world, all of that will change. You're a Weasley; you're famous and your opinion will be valued. But people will talk and you'll be associated with a _Malfoy_."

There it was again! And this time coming from Scorpius, of all people!

"God dammit, Scorpius!" I shouted, my temper finally getting the better of me. Stop acting as if I'm in this whole other class than you! I am _not_ better than you! I don't 'deserve' any more than you do. In fact, you deserve a lot more than I do given all you've had to put up with. When will you get it through your head that I _want_ to be with you? My father and the Wizarding World can go screw themselves for all I care." I was on a roll now, all Scorpius could do was stare in awe as I continued, "And another thing, I'm sick of how everyone says _Malfoy_. Including you! There's nothing bloody wrong with being a Malfoy. Hell, I'd be proud to be a Malfoy, to show up the world and their stuck up arses."

Yes, I realize _exactly_ what I had just said implied.

Scorpius's eyes were wide and shocked. This could be the usual result of one of my rants, or a reaction to the fact that I pretty much just said I would be happy to marry him.

That might've been it.

"And this is what I think of your pathetic attempt to break up with me." I strode over to where he was standing, frozen, grabbed him by his shirt collar and crushed my mouth to his.

He hesitated at first, but I just pressed closer to him, inhaling his slightly spicy smell and enjoying the taste of his lips.

And then he was kissing me back with a wild desperation. Its funny how easily anger, pain, and frustration had become a hungry passion as he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

I yanked on his hair, pulling him harder against me; my tongue grazed his lower lip and he moaned.

'Eh hem." Someone cleared their throat loudly.

Scorpius stopped kissing my neck, saw who it was, and almost dropped me. He compromised by falling back on the couch with an undignified plop.

"Hey!" I protested….and then saw my Uncle Harry standing in the doorway, with a very odd expression on his face.

"Umm…hi," I stuttered, very aware of the lipstick that stained Scorpius's collar and my swollen lips.

Uncle Harry's mouth twitched and the next second he was roaring with laughter.

Scorpius and I shared a confused look. I considered getting off his lap, but decided against it. This wasn't worse than the hot and heavy make out session my uncle had just witnessed, and besides, I was ever so comfortable.

And what was with people walking in on us? Hellooo, some privacy would be nice. This common room should have a lock.

Wait. This is probably exactly why they _don't_ have locks.

Damn.

I hate being predictable.

Uncle Harry was still doubled over with laughter and I was starting to get annoyed. If he kept this up, he was going to hurt himself.

Or rather, _I_ was going to hurt _him_.

"Is there a particular reason why you burst into our common room so rudely?" I asked testily. "Without knocking I may add."

My infuriating uncle straightened up, gasping, "I _did_ knock; you just didn't hear. I see now that you were clearly…busy." He chuckled again. "Sorry, Rose, but you're face was priceless."

I huffed angrily and asked Scorpius, "Why does this _always_ happen to us?"

Scorpius grinned, "Hell if I know, I decided a long time ago that the world is out to get me."

"This, is ridiculous," I stated to no one in particular.

Both Scorpius and Uncle Harry laughed at me because I probably looked about 5 years old with my arms folded stubbornly and lips forming a pout.

"Is there anything we can do for you, Mr. Potter?" Scorpius asked, ever the polite one.

"Well, I wanted to check up on Rose," His eyes twinkled and I glowered. "But actually, I really wanted to speak to you, Scorpius."

Scorpius sighed. "Believe me Mr. Potter; I have already been threatened by almost every member of your very large family. I'm _not_ going to hurt Rose." He sounded weary.

Uncle Harry smiled briefly. "I'm not going to threaten you, Scorpius." His eyes became sad, yeah, cuz _that_always led to good news. "I have news about your father."

Both Scorpius and I leapt to our feet, almost tripping over each other in the process.

"Yes?" Scorpius didn't even try to hide his eagerness. I was getting a bad feeling about this…

"We found him." Something in his tone made me look up sharply.

Scorpius paled and I slipped my hand into his. "Is he okay?" was what he said, but we all knew that what he was really asking was "Is he alive?". The thought of that made my heart squeeze painfully.

"He's alive," Uncle Harry said into the tension that hung in the air as thick as a velvet curtain. I felt Scorpius's muscles relax ever so slightly. But he's not doing very well. They brought him in last night and the Healers have been working on him all day. But he…he won't wake up."

Scorpius sank down on the couch, eyes staring blankly ahead, but despite the growing sense of nausea I felt, I stayed standing.

"Uncle Harry, you gotta let Scorpius see him. Where's Mrs. Malfoy?" As Scorpius couldn't seem to be able to speak, I was taking over for him like the amazing girlfriend I am.

Scorpius looked up, but his eyes were devoid of emotion and his voice steady as he asked, "How is she? She can't be handling this well."

Uncle Harry nodded, "She isn't; she hasn't left your father's side since they brought him in. She wants you to be with her for a little while. He hesitated. "She wants you to come too, Rose."

Well. That simplified matters. I had been preparing my arguments as I had been expecting a fight 'cause I was going to insist on going with Scorpius.

'I know you two just got back from break—"

"It doesn't matter." Scorpius and I said at the same time.

My uncle's brow creased. "But what about your NEWTs, Rosie? I know you've been worried about them."

'Worrying' was a massive understatement. Reaching the end of break had sent me into near panic mode about my upcoming wizarding tests. But, in the light of this, I had my priorities straight.

"This is more important," I said simply. And just to placate him more, I added, "And I'll bring a couple books with to look over, if there's time."

"Alright then," Uncle Harry consented. "You have 10 minutes to your things together, enough for a couple days. I've already spoken to McGonagall; we'll use the Floo Network out of her office."

I guess my Nancy Drew adventure was going to have wait until we got back. Ah well. Those bastards who helped Greyback would still be here.

Uncle Harry left, and Scorpius went numbly into his room. I stood alone in the middle of the room, listening to the silence and trying to absorb what had happened.

_My life needs to slow down_ I thought as I shoved some clothes and books into a bag.

Tossing my bag down on the couch, I hesitated before pushing open Scorpius's door.

His neatly packed bag lay on his bed, but Scorpius was standing by the window, staring out over the grounds.

I didn't approach him, for some reason I was apprehensive, as if I wasn't welcome. But God, it hurt me to see him like this; how he was trying to be strong, standing so rigidly there.

But then he turned around and the pain in his eyes staggered me. My lip quivered and I wanted nothing more than to run to him and hold him and make him smile again. But I didn't want to push him, so I just stood there wishing with every fiber of my being that I could take away his pain.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke, but then he surprised me. Crossing the room in two long strides, he stopped uncertainly in front of me.

"Rose," was all he could say. He looked so lost, so….afraid. I hugged him, and he buried his face in my hair as I held him tightly.

We didn't say a word. We didn't need to.

And cue Al's noisy entrance and shout of "Scorpius, where the _bloody hell_ are you?"

We pulled away from each other, and I sighed. Scorpius shook his head, his face transforming back into the easy mask he wore around everyone but me. "In here, mate." He called back.

A very worried looking Al appeared in the doorway. He didn't even comment on me being in Scorpius's room with him, which was a sure sign that he was distracted.

"I heard about your dad." Al said. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks," Scorpius replied, smiling briefly at his best mate. "Rose and I are about to go now."

Al nodded and gave Scorpius one of those infamous man hugs. I barely controlled my eye rolling.

Al grinned. "Tell your dad, when he gets better, he owes me a Quidditch game."

Scorpius grinned back. "He'll hold you to that." He turned to me, "I'm going to take our bags down to McGonagall's office."

I nodded distractedly. "Kay. Give me a minute; I'll be down in a second." Scorpius nodded and disappeared.

I grabbed Al by the arm. "Al, I'm gonna be gone. You've gotta look out for Hugo and Lily. Greyback's still out there. You've got to—"

He put a hand over my mouth. "Rose. Calm down. I'll look out for them. You know that."

I nodded and he removed his hand. I massaged my head and winced. "I'm sorry; I'm just so worried."

Al hugged me, and it felt nice; reminded me of the days when we were young and he was the only one who could comfort me. "I know. But just worry about Scorpius right now. He doesn't look like he's doing so well."

"He isn't," I whispered. "I just don't know how to help."

Al smiled. "Scorpius is head over heels for you, Rose. Just being there makes it makes it all the more bearable for him."

I eyed him suspiciously, "Who are you, and what have you done with my cousin?"

He laughed at that, "I'm not completely clueless _all_ the time, Rose."

I muttered under my breath, but Al ignored me, "You better get going."

I hugged him again, and ran down to McGonagall's office. Scorpius was already there; I sent him a quick smile. Uncle Harry looked at me. "Good, you're here. Now, I'm sending you straight to St. Mungo's. Someone will be waiting to escort you to Mr. Malfoy's room. I have to get back to work." He looked distracted.

Scorpius took a handful of Floo Powder, and disappeared into the fire without a word. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the flames to follow the boy I loved in his visit to his comatose father who was about two steps away from being labeled a wanted criminal.

And oh yeah, and there are werewolves, hormones, and overprotective fathers to deal with.

Who ever said life was easy?

If you find them, shoot them for me.


	14. No Way

Chapter 14

I hate Floo travel, I really do. One minute I'm spinning harder than Fred after he's had too much Firewhiskey and the next I have to throw out my hands to keep from having a close and personal encounter with the floor.

"This form of travel really doesn't like me," I grumbled as Scorpius pulled me to my feet after my less than graceful entrance.

He was hiding a grin as he said, "It doesn't have anything to do with your lack of coordination, of course."

"Hey, you wouldn't say that on the Quidditch pitch." I intertwined my fingers with his and we followed our dark and silent guide that Uncle Harry had set up for us down the hall.

What was with these Auror types? I mean was silent, stoic, and unapproachable part of the job description? You know…it actually might be…

Another thing, someone needs to give these freakin' portraits a deck of cards or something because if I hear one more near sighted medieval warlock tell me I have spattergroit, I might hurt someone.

Finally, we reached a hallway where our talkative and engaging guide left us with a simple nod to tell us that we should go down said hallway.

Scorpius's hand tightened around mine and I smiled encouragingly at him. We reached a doorway where two more Aurors stood on either side, like prison guards. I narrowed my eyes at them, not liking what they implied. I probably would have said something very snarky, but totally stupid if Scorpius hadn't stopped me with a 'don't engage' look. He was about the only person who could shoot me one of those and actually _not_ be ignored.

So I swallowed my annoyance and followed him inside his father's room. At once, Selena Malfoy stood up and rushed to embrace her son. I stood back awkwardly for a moment until she turned and pulled me into a smothering hug as well.

Pushing back tears, she attempted to smile, "Thank God, you're here. I've been so worried."

After pealing himself away from his mother, Scorpius approached his father's bedside. I saw his shoulders tense and fists clench. I wanted to go to him, but in all honesty, I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to behave here. This was, after all, Scorpius's family. But it seemed I worried needlessly because Mrs. Malfoy went back to her husband and took his limp hand, and then beckoned me over.

I approached the bed warily, not sure of what I would see. Mr. Malfoy lay on the stark hospital bed with an unnatural stillness. My heart ached for his family having to see him lie this, with pale lips, and still hands. I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. I swallowed, and then asked Mrs. Malfoy, "They haven't found anything?"

She tore her eyes away from her husband's still form long enough to answer me, "No, nothing. He, he was unconscious when they found him. He was hurt really badly; they healed all they could, but he just won't wake up." Tears trickled from her eyes and Scorpius quickly went to her, grasping her other hand.

"He's gunna be okay, Mom." He soothed her. "He's Dad. He's too damn stubborn to let this get him."

I took this as my cue to let the family be alone together. "I'm just going to go grab a drink," I told them, edging towards the door. I couldn't ignore the feeling that I was intruding on them even though I knew Scorpius had wanted me there. I think they need their space, and Mrs. Malfoy certainly needed her son right now.

Scorpius smiled softly at me, and I left the room quietly and went to search for the lounge.

I got lost.

Yeah, my sense of direction is, um, nonexistent. I had just turned down a new hallway when I heard voices. Instinctively, I ducked into an empty storage closet, pulling the door partially closed behind me. A moment later, I laughed at myself. Who was there to hide from in a hospital? I was letting my paranoia over Greyback get the better of me. Shaking my head, I was about to push the door open when a voice spoke.

I froze as icy fear trickled down my spine. I knew that voice. I had heard it right before Grayback had attacked me. I hadn't recognized it at the time, but now, well there was no way I could mistake it.

"What do you mean you're not going to help anymore?" The voice from Greyback's attack snarled.

A second voice answered nervously, "I can't do it. Someone will die." I clapped my hand over my mouth to muffle my gasp; the speaker was Nott. The same bloke who took a go at Scorpius, Al, and I what felt like a lifetime ago. And the other man was…his father?

So Daddy takes a leaf out of _his_ father's book and lends a hand to Greyback for reasons unknown _and_gets his kid involved? Bastard. I felt a pang of sympathy for Nott. And I thought _my_dad was bad.

Nott's father's voice was full of disgust. "You're a disgrace. You would let the people who did this to your mother go unpunished?" The man sounded seriously unhinged.

Nott continued to protest. "But you're going to kill them! The werewolf isn't listening to you. He'll do what he pleases, and someone's going to get hurt. Worse than before."

I flinched. _Yeah, buddy, that's me you're talking about._

"Mom wouldn't want—" The rest was cut off by a loud smack and the younger's Nott's muffled exclamation of pain.

"Don't you _dare_," Nott the Elder warned in a voice that shook with rage. "Say what your mother would want. Those _Aurors_ are the reason she can't tell us for herself. Now, we're going and you _will_ see this through." The sound of rapidly retreating footsteps echoed in the hall, and then all I could hear was my own rapid breathing.

I crept out of the closet, my heart still hammering. All I wanted was to find the lounge, but no, I had stumble upon something like this. But what do I do now? Alright, first things first. Get the hell out of this creepy hallway and find my way back to Scorpius.

10 minutes and many wrong turns later, I managed to find my way back to Mr. Malfoy's room, where I saw Scorpius waiting outside the door. He turned at the sound of my approach, and smiled wearily.

"Mom's inside talking with some nurses. I was just about to go look for you." He looked so tired; his hair untidy and tie loose.

I tried to smile back at him, but I'm afraid I failed miserably; I was just too shaken up by what I had heard. But I should have known I wouldn't be able to get this past Scorpius; he knew me too well. "Rose? Are you okay?"

Unwanted and unexpected tears burned in my throat, but I pushed them back. I was scared, and I didn't know what to do, but this wasn't the time for tears. "Yeah. I just…" I swallowed. "I need to tell you something, but not here okay?"

Scorpius eyes clouded over with concern, but he didn't argue. "Okay. We can go back to my family's place soon. Mum's going to stay here…" He trailed off as the implication of what he said soaked in.

Me and Scorpius. Alone. In his house. Oh boy…

Scorpius looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he kept glancing away, embarrassed.

A grin started to form on my face. "Your mum told you something, didn't she? A warning maybe?"

"She may have told me to behave and," He smirked, "Be the perfect gentleman and offer you our spacious guest room."

"Ah," I stepped closer to him and let my hand trail lightly down his arm. "What if I don't want you to be the perfect gentleman?"

"What the lady wants…." Scorpius's fingers traced the side of my face and lingered on my lips.

"Kiss me already."

Scorpius obliged and all thoughts of Greyback and Nott were momentarily shoved from my mind.

It wasn't long before we said our goodbyes to Mrs. Malfoy, who suggested we order take out, I would explain the concept to Scorpius, and behave ourselves, but she said it with a twinkle in her eyes. I did Side Along Apparation with Scorpius because I had never been to his house before and I didn't really fancy the idea of ending up in Merlin knows where.

"Oh wow," I breathed as Scorpius led me into the imposing mansion. It was actually rather beautiful, in a gothic kind of way. The grounds were impeccably cared for and tall trees framed Malfoy Manor.

"Yeah, that's one word for it." Scorpius muttered. I could tell he was self conscious about his apparent wealth and mansion. I took his hand and smiled. "I love it."

Explaining to Scorpius the art of Muggle take out proved to be very amusing. The Malfoy family did have servants, but to me, this would be more fun. And somehow, the prospect of sharing the story of how I ordered take out to Malfoy Manor just was too good to pass up.

Turns out Scorpius likes Chinese food.

All the lights in the mansion were dimmed, and night had fallen, casting shadows everywhere. Scorpius and I were curled up together on the large couch in their sitting room. The mansion held a medieval feel, but it would seem that the current Mrs. and Mr. Malfoy had done their best to make it more welcoming and less intimidating.

I played idly with Scorpius's fingers, his other arm wrapped around me. We had been enjoying a comfortable silence for several minutes when Scorpius spoke, "So what did you want to tell me earlier?"

The relaxed, flirty atmosphere that had been around us all evening disappeared, and all my earlier tension returned, now accompanied by a little guilt. Should I have told Mrs. Malfoy what I had heard? Maybe I should owl my uncle now…

"Rose." Scorpius placed two fingers under my chin and made me look at him. "What happened?"

So I told him. I couldn't keep my voice from shaking slightly as I recounted how I recognized Nott's father's voice from the night I was attacked. "What should we do, Scorpius?" I asked, still so unsure. "I mean, we have a history with Nott. What if they don't believe us, or what if they do, and they don't find anything? What if I heard them wrong and they were just having a heated conversation about…Quidditch?"

Scorpius cut me off with a kiss. It was long and lingering, and when we broke apart for air, my mind had gone fuzzy; I completely forgot what I had been going on about. That was probably Scorpius's intention.

Our foreheads stayed pressed together, and Scorpius said quietly, "We'll deal with this, I promise. We'll owl your uncle tomorrow and tell him what happened. He'll know what to do." One of his hands drifted to the back of my neck and he began rubbing it soothingly. "Just relax."

And that's when the whole mansion shook violently and I was thrown to the floor. I leapt immediately back on my feet and my eyes found Scorpius's gray ones. He gestured for me to follow him and we crept out of the sitting room, and warily approached one of the large front windows.

"Don't you have some sort of magical protection up on this place?" I muttered to Scorpius, but stayed back slightly as he peered through the window.

"Yeah," He told me grimly. "That's why he's waiting for us to come out."

My stomach dropped as I joined Scorpius at the window and saw exactly who was waiting for us. Well, more correctly, me.

"Come on out, girlie," Greyback paced back and forth, a sickening grin on his face. "I know you're in there. I'll have you know, I have something of yours. Something that you won't want damaged."

I felt all the blood drain from my face and I sprinted to the door, about to yank it open when Scorpius grabbed me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled. "You can't go out there."

I struggled against him, but he only held onto me tighter. "He has them!" I screamed at him. "Greyback has Hugo, and Lily and if he has them, he has Al. He's going to hurt them if I don't go out there." Desperate, angry tears escaped my eyes. This was my fault. I should have never left, better yet, I should have told Uncle Harry about the Notts the minute I could have. Now that monster has my cousins and my little brother.

Scorpius visibly paled, and he loosened his grip on me a little. "Rose. If you go out there, you're giving him what he wants. He'll have all of you, and then he'll kill you."

"I can't just sit here! If I go, maybe we can escape. We don't know if he has help!"

Scorpius gripped me harder again. "We'll go get your uncle and your dad. We can't take him on our own. You_know_ that."

It didn't matter what I _know_, or even what the rational thing to do was. All that mattered was that my family was in danger. I was supposed to look out for them, and now they could die while I sit here debating with my boyfriend.

So I did the only thing I thought I could. I let myself go slack in his arms and the tears fall freely from my eyes. Scorpius immediately loosened his arms to hold me better, to comfort me. It allowed me enough room to grasp my wand. "I'm sorry," I whispered, and then hit him with a silent stunning spell before he even knew what was happening. Scorpius slumped to the floor, and I winced.

He is _so_ gunna break up with me.

Quickly, I pulled off my sweater and bundled it under his head, and pressed a kiss to his temple before I threw open the door and walked out to meet my nightmare.

**A/N: Yeah, so this story is wrapping up. I've got another chapter and an epilogue after this. It's weird to even be thinking about this all ending so soon, but alas, it is. So! Review while you can ;D**


	15. Every Beginning Has An End

**A/N: I present to you the final chapter of Famous Last be followed by a brief epilogue ;)**

Chapter 15

It's funny the things you notice when you're scared out of your mind. Like say, right now for instance, I'm locked up in some run down old shack, in the clutches of a mad werewolf and this stain on my jeans is bothering the _hell_ outta me.

I guess its go all OCD over the smallest things, or start to panic.

Scratch that. Panic has already set in. Or was denial supposed to come first? No, that's the grieving process…

I _really_ need to get out of here. My mind's quirky thoughts could only stop me from completely freaking out and shutting down for so long.

I'm not sure how much time has passed since I knocked out my boyfriend and gave myself up to Greyback. An hour? Maybe an hour and a half?

All I know is that he took my wand, and then very rudely knocked me out, and I woke up here. It didn't feel like I had been out that long, but I couldn't really know that. I just got the feeling that Greyback wouldn't have wanted me out for too long; that wouldn't be any fun.

I just wish I knew if Greyback really did have my cousins and brother. I couldn't take this not knowing, not knowing if he was hurting them, not knowing what was going to happen to me, not knowing if I hadn't just been an utter and total bloody _moron_. Okay, I knew the answer to that one…

But honestly, what other choice did I have?

Fear was rising higher and higher inside me, a mass of dark coils in my stomach, threatening to overwhelm me. I closed my eyes, and took deep breaths, fighting against the terror. I would make it out of this, I would.

I had to keep a level head and figure this out. I wasn't done yet. And of course, there was still Scorpius. Maybe he would bring in the cavalry. The mental image that accompanied the thought of Scorpius on a horse briefly calmed me and my breathing returned to a relatively normal rate.

If I kept myself distracting myself, maybe I could keep from passing out.

In spite of the terror I was fighting to keep at bay, I needed something to happen. _Anything_. This waiting is killing me. So just for the hell of it, I went over to the door of my prison house and rapped on it loudly. "Hello?" I called out. "For the record, your room service sucks. Isn't there some rule about the treatment of prisoners of war? I'm _starving_." Yep. Instead of showing the fear, shoot up the attitude.

Of course, I hadn't been expecting the door to be brutally wrenched open and the werewolf himself to saunter in. I almost fell over myself trying to get as far away from him as possible. Every snarky comment, all my false bravado was gone the moment I locked eyes with the creature who was going to kill me. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead and I hid my shaking hands behind my back.

Staring at the Death Eater who had caused my parents so much grief, and almost killed one of my uncles, I felt so very young. I wanted my mother, I wanted my dad, I wanted this to _not be real._ But it was, and no amount of wishing would change that.

My breathing had become shallow and ragged but I did not lower my gaze. This bastard would _not _get that satisfaction.

I didn't realize that I had been still backing up until my back hit the far wall of the shack. Greyback continued to advance on me and I swear he could hear my heart's wild beating. He stopped mere inches from me. His breath came hot and fast, as if he was excited. It smelled of blood and flesh. One long yellow claw came up to stroke my cheek, and I flinched violently away, felling my skin crawl. This brought a brief chuckle from Greyback. "Such a scared little girl." He crooned. "All alone with nasty old me. Least your parents had each other."

"Leave my parents out of this." I managed to say, my voice shaking.

The claw Greyback had pressed to my cheek raked down the side of my face, slicing open my skin and causing me to gasp out in pain as blood trickled down my face.

"This is all about your parents." He snarled in my face. Greyback had gone from quiet and taunting to violent and angry in less than a split second. I cowered away from him, and as I tried to press myself further against the wall, I felt something sharp bite into my arm. It was a nail. My fingers unconsciously curled around it, feeling that it was one of those long ones. A sturdy 3 inch nail that had only made it partially through the wood.. If I could get it out, I might just have myself a weapon.

Okay, a pretty pathetic weapon, but beggars can't be choosers.

I began to whittle the nail back and forth, trying to work it out of the wood. I addressed Greyback now, hearing a little more steel in my voice from this small hope I now had. "So what's your deal with them anyways? Did they hurt your feelings when they told you to brush your teeth?"

Yeah, taunting the big, bad wolf probably wasn't the _best _idea, but it was the only way I could think of to keep his attention away from what my hands were doing.

It worked.

Greyback backhanded me across the face. It was going to leave one hell of a bruise. "Don't cheek me, girlie. You're _parents,_" He spat out the word like it was poison. "Ruined everything. I spent the last decades in a hellhole because of them." He leaned into me; I felt his dirty whiskers brush my ear. "And tearing your throat out will hurt them more than any physical pain."

"Poetic." I squeaked. I had no idea how I kept talking. I just continued to cling to the small hope that the nail I had halfway worked out of the woodwork could be of some defense.

Again, Greyback's mood shifted dramatically. He shook back his head, and laughed. It sounded strangely like a howl.

My fingers continued to work; the nail was almost out.

There was now a more comfortable distance between the werewolf and I. He had backed up several steps and was surveying me silently. I felt like I was being sized up. Hopefully not as a meal.

Greyback smiled a humorous, toothy smile. "I'm gunna tell you a lil story, I think. You got spirit. And I will enjoy watching you tremble."

Great. Why do the bad guys always have to brag?

"An old friend was the one who busted me out of my prison. I still don't know how he managed it, but I imagine the Dark Lord himself would have been pleased. You see, this man, Nott, wanted a little revenge himself." He shook his head mockingly at me. "Your parents got into a lot of trouble, and now you're paying the price. Anyways, Nott's wife happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during a Ministry raid. Poor thing got caught in the Aurors' crossfire. That was 3 years ago. She's a complete vegetable now, can't move, can't open her eyes. I'm told it drove her husband mad." Greyback grinned, not exactly looking like the poster boy for sanity himself. "Mad enough to break out a highly dangerous and unstable werewolf."

I stayed silent, my mind a confused jumble of thoughts. The man Greyback was talking about was Nott's dad. A part of me felt sympathy for the man who had lost his wife to the very people who were supposed to be protecting us. But the larger, much more convincing part of me had this man labeled as a grief stricken, raving lunatic would should be locked up.

Greyback wasn't done with his tale yet. He began circling in front of me as he picked up again. "He wanted me to his dirty work for him. Scare up your father by threatening you and your brother. But I don't like threats. They're just not permanent enough for me. Death is much more of a stain, don't you think?"

My throat had gone completely dry, and I think I would have passed out from terror at this point if it hadn't been for the cold, rusty piece of metal that was now enclosed in my hand. It was something solid that I could hold on, it represented a slim, small shot at defending myself and I held onto it like a life line.

I didn't speak. I didn't think I could. Also, it was clear Greyback wasn't done yet. "Yes, Nott's plan wasn't violent enough for me, so implemented my own. His son was more than willingly to help me get into the castle. Of course, that was only because he was terrified. I almost had you too, but your boyfriend ruined it. Only adds insult to injury that it was Draco's son." Greyback sounded incredibly bitter. "I always knew that boy never had it in 'em, even when the Dark Lord was on his doorstep. But I took care of him." There was that insane, evil grin again. This guy was definitely extremely unstable. I gripped my nail tighter.

Somehow I found my voice long enough to ask, "It was you who attacked Mr. Malfoy?"

"Why of course. He was making a nuisance of himself, trying to play the hero. Thought he could get the better of me, and keep you safe, but now he can't even wake up now can he?"

Rage helped me control my fear. I_ knew _Scorpius's dad had been on our side. The fact that Greyback had almost killed him because he had been trying to do the right thing filled me with a kind of anger that longed to be unleashed. This monster had taken too much from me and the people I care about.

Finally, I had mastered my terror. I was still scared as hell, but the mind numbing terror had been beaten back. I could know begin to think clearly. It was amazing what anger can do.

"So this is your master plan?" I attempted to sneer. "Take me to God knows where and finish me off? For what? For my parents to hunt you down like an animal and make you pay? This won't end with me, Greyback."

"No, it won't," The werewolf conceded. "But it's a start." And he lunged at me, yellow teeth arching towards my throat, just like my nightmares. I screamed.

Remember that little nail? The one that wasn't strong enough to go all the way through the wood? Yeah, well, it turns out werewolf eyes are a hell of a lot softer than wood.

When Greyback had lunged at me, I had thrown up my hand with the only defense I had; that rusty old nail sunk deep into the werewolf's eye.

He stumbled away from me, roaring pain, cursing me blindly. Thank Merlin my legs remembered how to work. I dodged around my screaming captor and out the door.

And then I ran like hell. I didn't know where I was or what direction I was going, or hell, even if my shoes were tied, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that I put as much distance between me and that monster. I had gotten a mere 20 yards from my prison before I heard the growling and then the lopsided lope of what could only be Greyback behind me.

I risked a glance behind me, and through the trees, I caught sight of him, his one good eye full of rage and hatred. Adrenaline spiked my system and I pushed my legs faster, ignoring the branches that whipped my face and the roots that tangled my feet.

But he was gaining; I could tell that he was gaining. Tears of frustration and fear pricked my eyes, and I tripped slightly as my shirt tore on a spiky bush that I crashed through.

"Help! Help! Someone help me!" I screamed over and over, hoping desperately that someone, anyone would hear me. Right now, I didn't even care if a muggle found me. Though preferably he'd have a shot gun.

I could hear Greyback's chuckling as he drew nearer to me. Suddenly, through the thick trees, rose crumbling ruins of what must have been an old castle. The place looked as if it had been bombed, or possibly ripped apart by powerful, devastating spells. Hope flared briefly in my chest, if I could just make it to the ruins, maybe I could lose him amongst the winding, crumbling walls.

I could feel the ground beneath my feet pounding as Greyback closed the distance between us to mere feet. I was still a good 15 yards from the ruins, and my lungs felt like they were on fire and my legs like they were about to fall off.

Suddenly, Greyback's fist crashed into my back. It felt like a small battering ram, and I flew twenty feet, landing painfully on my back. My lungs fought to fill with air even as I scrambled backward on my hands, but I knew it was over. Greyback panted up to where I lay, a feral grin of triumphant curling his bloodied face, the eye I had stabbed was closed, but I could see it was mangled.

"I was going to make this fast, girlie." He began conversationally, crouching down next to me. I continued to back away from him and he let me. We both knew I wasn't going anywhere fast. I hurt everywhere. I was covered in scratches and cuts, my ankle was surely twisted and my whole back felt like one huge bruise. "But you managed to convince me otherwise."

I knew I was going to die. There was nowhere left to run too. Unexpected courage began to spread from my toes to my head. I raised my chin in defiance, and stared back into Greyback's ruthless eyes, refusing to give him anymore satisfaction.

Greyback growled, teeth flashing, but before he could make a move, I heard several voices shout at once, a bright flash of red and Greyback was thrown all the way to the wall of the ruins, hitting the stone with a thud, then falling to the ground, unmoving.

With unbelieving eyes, I watched as my father, Uncle Harry, Scorpius and half a dozen aurors raced towards me and the fallen werewolf. Scorpius reached me first and dropped to his knees next to me. I struggled to sit up. "Nice of you to drop by," I said weakly, before my head swam and everything went black.

~*~*~

As it turns out, I wasn't entirely wrong about my assumption that Greyback had my brother and cousins. He certainly believed he had or would have had them very soon, after he'd taken care of me. But Nott the younger, who had been charged with luring them away, had not followed through. Never thought that he being a spineless git would ever come in handy. Maybe I should send him a card.

Speaking of cards, I've got about a hundred of them. After I passed out, I woke up in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing 2 days later. It was a total déjà vu moment when I woke up painfully to see Scorpius snoring lightly on a chair next to me, his hand holding mine in a vice like grip.

I smiled softly, watching him sleep for a moment, a rush of contentment warming me. Then, 'cause I couldn't resist, I reached over and ruffled his blonde hair, making it stick up in all directions. I giggled as he stirred groggily and opened those gray eyes I loved.

"I took the liberty of styling your hair for you." And I smirked as his hand shot to his hair immediately. He mock scowled me. "Did you intend for me to look like a five year old?"

"I think it's cute." I insisted indignantly. "As your bed ridden girlfriend, you should humor me."

The playful smile dropped from his face, and was replaced by a serious and worried expression that darkened his gray eyes. He sat down on my bed, eyes locked with mine, our hands still entwined.

After a moment of silence, I whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't think— I shouldn't have—"

Scorpius was shaking his head. "Don't apologize. What happened, happened." He smiled wryly at me. "But next time, try not to knock me out."

I grinned back at him. "No promises." I scooted over on the bed, and Scorpius slide in next to me, gingerly placing one arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him, feeling contentment settle over me like a warm blanket.

I knew that we would eventually have to talk about what had happened, but now was not the time. The only thing either of us wanted right now was to hold each other and relish that the nightmare was finally over.

I nodded off again and when I awoke again, it was dark out and I could hear whispering. It took me a moment to recognize the voices as my father and Scorpius.

Bad combination. Bad, bad, _bad_.

That's when I noticed that neither of them was yelling, in fact, they seemed quite civil. Man, I must have been out for longer than I thought.

"She fell asleep about an hour ago." Scorpius was murmuring.

I kept my eyes squeezed shut, as if I was still sleeping, but I could still see my dad's distracted nodding in my head. "She was very beaten up," His voice quivered. "It's best that she gets plenty of rest."

"Rose is too stubborn to let this get the best of her for long." I heard the chuckle in Scorpius's voice.

"That she is," came Dad's fond reply.

I had planned on listening in some more, but sleep pulled me under again. Strange dreams plagued my sleep this time, but I woke up to my dad sitting at my side. Blinking groggily, I sat up. God, I don't even want to know what my hair looks like.

"Hey, Dad," I whispered, surprised at the tears were filling my eyes.

"Oh, Rosie. Shhh shh." He wrapped me in a hug, and I could feel like I was five again, wrapped in my daddy's embrace.

We didn't say anything. There would be many talks, and arguments, and probably yelling later, but for now, all was forgiven.

I was released form the Hospital Wing later that day. As soon as reached the Great Hall, where my father had informed me there was going to be a feast in celebration of the elimination of the threat of Greyback, a hush fell over hall of the students. The silence lasted for only a moment before a shrill cry and two strangled shouts of "Rosie!" pierced the air and I was tackled from all sides by Al, Hugo, and Rose.

Al smacked me upside the head.

"Oi!" I shouted. "What was that for?"

"For falling for the oldest trick in the book." Al told me exasperately.

I aimed a kick at him. "Yeah, what would you have done in my place?"

To that, he had no answer. Ha.

I hugged them all tight before shooing them back to their tables, with promises to talk later. Al, however, stayed by my side.

"Don't ever do something like that again."

I smiled, "What? You don't think I should pull some more stunts similar to our dad's school days?"

Al rolled his eyes, but I could see in those bright green orbs that he had been terribly worried about me. I hugged him fiercely one more time. "It's all over, Al."

The next few days went by in a daze. My mum had appeared at Hogwarts, and nearly blown the entire school up when she heard the entire story. The bit about a student letting Greyback in the school was particularly bad. Both Dad and Uncle Harry had to hold her back from stomping down to the dungeons and having a go at Nott herself.

Nott had apparently come clean about his involvement with Greyback when he had heard I had disappeared. Now, his father was another matter entirely. He had been thrown into Azkaban still screaming his revenge before breaking down into shuddering sobs, begging for his wife. When I heard this, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy even after all he had done.

As for Greyback, all my father would tell me was that he would never hurt anyone again. There was steel in his voice and no remorse in his eyes when he said this, leaving me with no doubt that I would never see the werewolf again.

That civil exchange between my dad and Scorpius had _not_ been a hallucination brought on by pain and sleeping potions as it turned out. My dad had grudgingly told me that I could date Scorpius. I get the feeling that Scorpius had impressed him during their frantic search for me. I knew that it would take time for my dad to fully accept Scorpius, but we had plenty of time for that.

I was the center of attention at school for the month following my little adventure. I put on a smile and answered the constant questions with a light hearted remark or a joke. I kept my fellow students satisfied with casual talk, but Scorpius was the one who held me every night when I screamed and cried in my dreams, striking out and begging with someone who wasn't there.

Eventually though, I was able to sleep through the night again. I eased back into life at Hogwarts. Al announced I was officially 'back' on the day I started getting on his Scorpius's cases about our upcoming NEWTS. I made a show of rolling my eyes and smacking him, but inside I was smiling.

It was a day in late March, and I was out on the grounds with Amy and Katie. We stood by the edge of the Black Lake, skipping stones across the shear surface, giggling when the odd tentacle surfaced and skipped a stone back to us.

Suddenly, there was the thumping of feet behind us, coming from the castle, and before I could turn around, I was swept up into someone's arms. "Scorpius!" I shrieked. "Put me _down_!"

But my boyfriend paid me no heed, like usual. A brilliant smile was lighting up his face, and as he spun me around, he kept saying "He woke up, he woke up."

I was still trying to figure out who 'he' was, when Scorpius stumbled, causing both of us to fall backwards, landing next to each other. It was at this moment that my friends decided it would be a good time for them to make their exit.

"What is with you and knocking us over?" I asked exasperatedly.

But Scorpius just grinned at me, "My dad woke up."

My face broke into a huge smile, mirroring Scorpius's. "What? When? When will you get to see him?"

"I just got an owl from him. He's already complaining about Mum's fussing. It turns out those twin cousins of yours figured out what was wrong with him and revived him last night."

I couldn't help the swell of pride I felt at Grace and Kelli's achievement. They were set to be excellent Healers.

"I'm going to see him tomorrow. Just a short visit." Scorpius continued happily. "By the way, he says hi." He grinned. "Your uncle and dad have already been there to see him."

"They were?" I asked, surprised. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Draco Malfoy in one room together_willingly_?

"Yeah. They were there to tell Dad that absolutely no charges were being held against him and they would do everything in their power to prove that he had no affiliation with Greyback." Scorpius grinned again. "He also mentioned that he went into shock after that."

I broke into giggles. "The world has officially come to an end."

"No kidding."

"Shouldn't you go pack if you're going to go see your dad?" I asked Scorpius.

"Already did." His gray eyes seemed to darken as they bore into me. "I wanted to spend tonight with you." His voice had gotten low and husky as his fingers trailed down my arm.

I smiled seductively as I leaned in for a kiss, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Sneaking up to the Astronomy Tower wasn't hard after I blackmailed Al into lending me his Invisibility Cloak. We spent the night up there, alternating between kissing and talking and occasionally hiding to avoid getting caught. Yes, we are a _shameful_ pair of Heads.

When I was with Scorpius, everything was so simple. We were the only two people in the world. No one else mattered. As I watched the sunrise, piercing the clouds and bathing the castle in red light, I leaned into Scorpius, feeling as if maybe, just maybe my future and everything else, would work out just fine.

**A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this ending. Hopefully not too rushed or anything, but as always, reviews are love. Or chocolate. You know what, those are pretty much the same thing. Ahem. But it is over. Well, 'cept for that epilogue that will be up as soon as this validates. And now THANK YOU to everyone that reviewed this story. You guys have no idea how all these reviews make my day. I love you all. And now I'm shutting up...**


	16. Epilogue: Famous Last Words

Epilogue: Famous Last Words

_The past is behind us, love is in front and all around us. ~Terri Guillemets_

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

My mother has a love of this particular muggle wedding tradition and I have to admit, it does have a certain charm to it.

I am wearing an ancient heirloom from my future husband's side of the family around my neck. It's a heavy stone that winks in the bright light of the dressing room as I continue to fiddle nervously with my hair.

My wedding dress is brand new. Its creamy white, and simple, falling to the floor in silky waves. Lily, my mum and I spent hours searching for the perfect one. My dark red hair contrasts it beautifully, or so I'm told.

My cousin Victoire's borrowed veil sits on my head. The light lace was painstakingly sown by hand and is one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. I wore my hair long and loose, and the veil flows down my back.

And just because I'm Rose Weasley, I have bright blue shoes on my feet. The horrified look on my mum's face as my dad roared with laughter will keep me entertained for years to come.

I swallow hard as I stare at myself in the mirror. Wide, scared brown eyes stare back at me. I had often dreamed about my wedding day, but now it was actually _here_. I was about to get _married._And I was scared as hell.

I was taking deep, calming breaths when Al slipped in. He smiled at me, looking very dapper in his tux. "Nervous?"

"As if you had to ask." I snapped.

"Oh, Rosie." My cousin sighed. "You love him, he loves you. That's all that matters."

I glared at him. "You're not the one about to go out there."

Al grinned and flashed me his own wedding band. "Been there, done that." He smirked.

"Oh shut up."

Kindness flooded Al's green eyes. "Rose, there's a man out there whose world revolves around you. You two have come so far. Marriage is just one more step. But if it makes you feel any better, he's as jittery as you. Couldn't even tie his own tie."

I rolled my eyes at that because I could just see it. Taking one more deep breath, I said, "Okay. I'm ready. How do I look?"

Al grinned impishly. "I'm sure we'll all hear Scorpius's jaw hit the floor."

I smacked him.

"You look beautiful."

"That's better."

Al smirked again and offered me his arm. "Let us be off."

I giggled at his mock serious tone and linked my arm through his. Al led me to my father before slipping off to his position as best man next to the groom.

Dad's eyes widened as he saw me. "Rosie. Look at you."

I smiled at him from under my veil as he took my arm and we began the walk down to my future.

Of course, my future was wearing a snazzy tux with a lopsided tie.

The giggle that had been rising in my throat died as my eye's locked with Scorpius's beautiful gray ones.

And in those short minutes that I walked down the aisle, I saw it all. Our first meeting, every fight, every hex, every nasty word. I saw the change before my eyes. The awkwardness that led to a blossoming love. The blossoming love that led to a passionate affair that brought both of our proud families to their knees. But there was more; I saw our future. I saw the red and blonde children running underfoot, I saw the crazy family get togethers and every night with my soon to be husband.

My nervousness ebbed away as a happiness filled every fiber of my being. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I was glowing.

The Bane of My Existence turned true love, smirked at me from his position at the altar, and I winked back.

Let's just say, I'm eating those famous last words.

_The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of. ~Blaise Pascal_

**A/N And there you have it. Famous Last Words is complete. I hope you guys enjoyed the ride just as much as I have. It's been a heck of a journey for me for sure, and I'm going to miss Rose like crazy. **

**Unless I write a sequel. Which I might. Let me know if you guys would read it. **

**THANK YOU ALL for your reviews and support because this story would not have been written without you. And a special thanks to my best friend, Elizabeth, who read through almost every chapter for me and provided me with much help and ideas. Until next time, folks.**

**~Lunaroxmysox**


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